Appeal No. 2000-0935
Application 08/567,447
appeal brief that the term “abstract” as used in the context
of Spencer is not the same as the term “abstract” as used in
the context of their rejected claims. The applicants state
(Br. at 7-8):
Spencer provides for an informational
retrieval system written in some type of
programming language such as an object-
oriented language like C++. When Spencer
discusses an abstract class, it does so in
the computer science sense to mean a set of
objects that share a common structure and
behavior. Certain classes, like abstract
classes can be used to derive new classes.
For example, Spencer indicates “QueryNode
203 class is an abstract class from which
specific QueryNode subclasses can be
derived.” Spencer, column 6, lines 7-9.
Also, Spencer states “Because the QueryNode
203 class is an abstract class, it provides
the basis of the extensible query
architecture by allowing the applications
programmer to implement new query models
specifically designed to meet the search
needs of the user, or the database
environment by deriving new NodeCreator 201
.x and QueryNode 203 .x classes from the
respective base classes.” Spencer, column
6, lines 12-21. Indeed, in the abstract of
Spencer, the line quoted by the Examiner
and the next line together state “The query
architecture is based on an abstract base
class of query nodes, or code objects that
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