Appeal No. 1998-3394
Application 08/405,964
displayed symbol or message that requests input from the user
or gives operational information generally considered a
software message that requests action by the user . . . . The
user must respond to the prompt in order to proceed." Id. A
"prompt" is also broadly a "cue" or "reminder." Webster's New
Collegiate Dictionary (G. & C. Merriam Co. 1977). While a
menu option might broadly be considered a "prompt" in the
sense that it can serve as a reminder of an action the user
could choose, there is simply no way to tell what the menu
options are in Sidekick to determine whether they prompt a
user to provide data as stated by the Examiner. It is
improper to resort to speculation or unfounded assumptions to
supply deficiencies in the factual basis for a rejection).
See In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017, 154 USPQ 173, 178 (CCPA
1967). As a matter of claim interpretation, the limitation
of "prompting a user . . . to provide data" appears to require
only one prompt for data, but even this is not taught or
suggested by Sidekick.
2.
Next, we address the Examiner's conclusion that one of
ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to modify
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