Appeal No. 2001-0041
Application No. 08/661,899
eliminating any need for the manual inputting of data, with sensor data made available
to the host computer 32 (Fig. 1) for updating databases for service records.
Additionally, “[t]otal mileage can be checked against a bench mark mileage recorded in
a memory of the main host computer (32) for the purpose of scheduling periodic
maintenance such as engine tune-ups and the like.” Stewart at col. 7, ll. 39-43. Read
in context, Stewart thus suggests an automated indication of at least one “regularly
scheduled event” within the meaning of the “indicating” steps of claims 29 and 35.
The section of Stewart does not disclose any sort of automated determination
regarding whether a maintenance event was performed at the time indicated in the
indicating step. However, Stewart at least suggests human “determination” of whether
or not a regularly scheduled maintenance event was performed at the time indicated.
All the information necessary for making such a determination is stored in the database
maintained by the main computer. The printed service record 32b (Fig. 1) would be
expected to have some indication of past maintenance, rather than simply a statement
of maintenance that may be presently required. For example, Stewart at least suggests
that a report of periodic maintenance, such as the last engine tune-up of the relevant
vehicle, would form part of a printed service record. The claims do not distinguish over
human “verification” that, for example, the vehicle received the engine tune-up at the
time indicated by the system. The “indicating” and the “determining” steps of claims 29
and 35 require no more.
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