Appeal No. 2002-0034
Application 09/052,646
The apparent aim of Kwan's algorithm is to reclaim objects
and not to delete them or eliminate them. This is expressed in
the first full paragraph at column 1 at page 407 of his article,
as well as in the second paragraph of the Conclusions at column 1
of page 411. Kwan does not define what "reclaiming" an object is
but it appears clear that there is a distinction in the art
between eliminating/deleting an object and reclaiming an object
according to Kwan.
So-called inlets and outlets are special objects in
themselves in addition to root objects and other objects that may
be within any of the two respective processors depicted for
example in Figure 1 at page 407. As stated at the bottom of
column 1 at page 408 "as soon as the reference counter of an
inlet reaches zero, an inlet can be reclaimed." Correspondingly,
as stated at the middle of the second column of page 408, the
"inlet will be reclaimed if its reference counter reaches zero
and it is not in use." Thus, it is clear that according to the
teachings relied upon by the examiner at page 408, in the context
of inlet/outlet objects which reach a zero reference count, they
are respectively reclaimed and not necessarily eliminated or
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