Appeal No. 1998-2848
Application 08/398,862
referred to as "EA__") for a statement of the Examiner's
position and to the replacement Brief (Paper No. 16) (pages
referred to as "Br__") filed March 2, 1998, for Appellant's
arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
Interpretation of "disassociated"
The claims first require interpretation. "[T]he name of
the game is the claim." In re Hiniker Co., 150 F.3d 1362,
1369, 47 USPQ2d 1523, 1529 (Fed. Cir. 1998). In particular,
we define the term "disassociated" which appears in all
independent claims.
The Examiner states (Paper No. 10, page 2):
The claimed invention is directed to data structures
representing descriptive material per se. This
determination is based on the fact that Applicant has
intentionally avoided claiming the mechanism or medium
that is interrelated with the data structure; e.g.:
"disassociated computer program"; "disassociated computer
code segments." See M.P.E.P. 2106.
The Examiner further states (EA5):
The word "disassociated" means: "to disconnection [sic]
from association, dissociate," Webster's New
International Dictionary, Second Edition, (1939). A
computer program is associated with a medium; e.g. a disk
or computer memory. Therefore, a disassociated computer
program is a program not associated when [sic] a medium.
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