Appeal No. 2001-0526 Page 2 Application No. 08/960,236 BACKGROUND Appellant's invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing user input to an application using a contact-sensitive surface. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1, which is reproduced as follows: 1. A method of providing user input to an application resident on a data processing system, the method comprising the steps of: contacting a contact-sensitive surface of a user input device with an implement configured to produce a contact point configuration including at least one contact point; identifying the contact point configuration; identifying a user input mode based on the identified contact point configuration; and processing the at least one contact point in the application based on the identified user input mode. The prior art reference of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed claims is: Verrier et al. (Verrier) 5,475,401 Dec. 12, 1995 Claims 1-10 and 13-15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Verrier. Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and appellant regarding the above-noted rejection,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007