Appeal No. 1999-1456 Application No. 08/864,750 Independent claim 2 is reproduced as follows: 2. A distributed control system for controlling material flow within an industrial process, comprising: a plurality of industrial process control field devices for sensing or altering material flow within the industrial process; central control means connected via a primary hardwired communication link to the industrial process control field devices to communicate first signals between the central control means and the industrial process control field devices; a first transceiver; a second transceiver connected to at least one of the industrial process control field devices, the first and second transceivers providing redundant two-way wireless communications of second signals between the first transceiver and the second transceiver. The Examiner relies on the following reference: Clark et al. (Clark) 5,666,530 Sep. 9, 1997 Claims 2 through 12 and 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Appellants admitted prior art in view of Clark. Rather than reiterate the arguments of Appellants and the Examiner, reference is made to the brief and answer for the respective details thereof. 3Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007