Appeal No. 1999-1605
Application 08/502,882
without infecting [sic, affecting] each other (see figure 1,
column 4, lines 67-68 and column 5, lines 1-2)."
Rickenbach relates to a software system which fuses the
display outputs of a plurality of independent application
programs into a single overlayed screen display (abstract;
col. 1, lines 12-17). However, the Examiner relies on the
description of the prior art rather than what Rickenbach
discloses as the invention. Fig. 1 shows a conceptual layout
of a prior art windowing system having a plurality of
application programs 16, 18 generating output displays in
windows 10, 12. User interfaces (software) 23, 24 for each
program 16, 18 provide interfaces to the user input devices
25, 26 for each application program. Although Fig. 1
conceptually shows different application programs 16, 18
responsive to different groups of input devices 25, 26,
Rickenbach discloses that the groups of input devices are, in
fact, the same input devices used successively (col. 5,
lines 22-26): "Windowing management system 14 further permits
the user to switch into, out of and between application
programs 16 and 18 so that input devices such as the keyboards
and mouse controls may be operated with each application
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