Appeal No. 2002-2023 Paper 31
Application No. 08/689,526 Page 14
step of "providing predetermined pointer movement control actions responsive to the
compared pointer movement line with the barrier including the steps of ... changing an
orientation of the pointer responsive to said compared pointer movement line
with said barrier." We think not. As pointed out by appellant (Brief, ¶ bridging pp. 16-
17), the cursor orientation in McCambridge depends on current cursor position, i.e., the
pointer orientation is changed responsive to comparing one point with a barrier, rather
than changing pointer orientation responsive to comparing at least two points
(necessary to define a pointer movement line) with said barrier, as claimed. Therefore,
the claimed invention would not "be produced by replacing the pointer in figure 4 of
Kanamaru et al. with the McCambridge pointer as illustrated in figure 3, items 304, 308,
312 or 316 and integrating all the respective software programs" as argued by the
examiner (Answer, p. 5, ¶ 2).
The examiner's entire rebuttal to this question reads as follows.
As to the arguments to McCambridge et al. (last two lines of page
16 to page 17) Appellant tries to argue that McCambridge et al. cursor
orientation depends on current cursor position rather than the changing an
orientation of the pointer responsive to the comparing a pointer movement
line. First, the specification is checked for the definition of "comparing a
pointer movement line with said barrier" and is checked for the definition of
"changing an orientation."
The phrase "comparing said pointer movement line with said
barrier" or event just the word "comparing" are not in the specification
but were at least in the original claims. The phrase "comparing said
pointer movement line with said barrier" at best only finds support in
applicants figure 2 and page 5 lines 13-33 since applicant has chosen
words and phrases in the claims that do not have direct recitation in the
specification, the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim language
is given.
The claim phrase "changing an orientation" was originally
narrowly interpreted by the examiner to only mean a change in direction or
heading of the pointer relative to a compass, however the phrase
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