Appeal No. 2002-0366 Page 6
Application No. 08/803,692
selections received from the user. Appellant (breif, page 11)
acknowledges that Tang'173 describes a system in which a worker
in a work group can select a closed mode to prevent the worker's
representation from being provided to other task proximate
workers. However, appellant argues that the closed mode applies
to all other co-workers, and cannot be selectively enabled so as
to select co-workers.
From our review of Tang'365, we agree with the examiner that
Tang'365 does not disclose the ability of the user to selectively
prevent others from being informed when they are on-line. From
our review of Tang'173, we find that Tang'173 discloses a closed
mode (col. 10, lines 28 and 29) in which no representation is
made to other task proximate workers. From our review of
Tang'173, we agree with appellant that the closed mode feature of
Tang'173 applies to all other co-workers. Thus, we find no
disclosure in Tang'365 or Tang'173 of providing a worker with the
ability to select which other workers can add the worker to their
associated user-definable co-user lists. In sum, we find that
the combined teachings of Tang'365 and Tang'173 do not teach or
suggest selectively blocking co-users from adding the user to
their associated user-definable co-user lists, as required by
claims 5 and 12. Because the examiner has failed to establish a
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