Appeal No. 2000-0935
Application 08/567,447
system. In the context of claim 14, the method produces key
words to be used for accessing “abstracts” of raw business
information data. It is indisputable that the applicants’
claimed invention relate to “abstracts” of raw business data
or information.
The applicants’ specification does not specially define
the term “abstract.” Thus, the term takes on its ordinary
meaning, as a noun, and as pointed out by the applicants in
their appeal brief, citing The American Heritage Dictionary,
1985:
1. A statement summarizing the
important parts of a given text.
2. The concentrated essence of a
larger whole.
That meaning is also consistent with the meaning of an
“Abstract” in the context of a patent application.
In applying the Spencer reference against the applicants’
claims, the examiner does not identify in Spencer the storage
of any “abstract” which provides a summary or essence of
associated business data or information. Rather, the examiner
merely identifies with respect to Spencer’s database that:
“the query structure is based on an abstract base class of
query nodes.” In that regard, the applicants explain in the
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