Appeal No. 1997-0895
Application 08/286,107
Examiner that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art at the time of invention to have two wire
cable paths linked through an adapter to two fiber optic
paths. Such a conclusion is clearly laudable when one
considers that even those not skilled in the art realize a
telephone, which uses a wire cable path, is commonly linked to
other telephones through an intervening fiber optic path.
Appellants argue that the interfaces and the
protocols of Hedberg are the same. Appellants state:
Hedberg refers to the four paths (15 to 18) in
Figure 2 (the four paths are the interfaces in and
out of the computer, and in and out of the switch)
as the same and complying to the High Performance
Parallel Interface (“HIPPI”) standard (see col. 4,
lines 4-9....Everything shown in Hedberg confirms
that the interfaces are the same, use HIPPI
protocol, and have the same data and control signals
as shown in Figure 2. Any interface controlled by
identical hardware, conforming to the same standard,
and comprised of the same interface lines, must
communicate by the same protocol. (Brief-pages 5
and 6.)
The Examiner responds:
The scope of a protocol used by an
interface is not bound by the communications
interface standard adopted by the data path in the
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