Appeal No. 2000-0935
Application 08/567,447
retrieve records from the database.
Specific subclasses for particular query
nodes are derived from the base class.”
Additionally, the term Abstract Class
is defined as “In object-oriented
programming, a class designed only as a
parent from which sub-classes may be
derived, but which is not itself suitable
for instantiation. Often used to “abstract
out” incomplete sets of features which may
then be shared by a group of sibling sub-
classes which add different variations of
the missing pieces.” (The On-Line Computer
Dictionary, which can be found at http:
//wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html).
The above quotations from Spencer
illustrates that when Spencer uses the term
“abstract base class”, it is using it in
the computer science sense.
Despite the succinct challenge from the applicants about
the term “abstract” being used differently in Spencer as it is
in the context of the applicants’ claims, the examiner gives
no adequate explanation for regarding Spencer’s “abstract base
class” of query nodes in object-oriented programming language
the same as the applicants’ “abstracts” of business
information. In the answer at 5-6, the examiner states:
Since the query that retrieve records from
the database is “abstract base”, the data
that is stored in the database is obviously
abstract base as well. Therefore, a data
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