Appeal No. 2003-0322
Application No. 09/569,476
provides for this “hint,” this function is not performed “without requiring user input”
because it requires some action by the player, viz., the striking of a plunger. Moreover,
to whatever extent Jacobs may be considered to show an automatic procedure of
providing a “hint” without requiring user input (and we do not believe that Jacobs does
show this), this “hint” is clearly not performed “successively providing over a period of
time each of a plurality of portions of the representation of the puzzle object...,” as
required by the instant claims.
As shown by example in the instant disclosure, a puzzle object is in the shape of
the State of California. Pieces of this puzzle, or portions of the shape, are depicted
automatically, without input from the user, once a certain website and/or game is
activated, and the portions are successively provide automatically until such time as the
puzzle is solved, with higher scores awarded for solving the puzzle earlier, when there
are fewer portions displayed. It is this to which the claim language, “automatically and
without requiring user input, successively providing over a period of time each of a
plurality of portions of the representation of the puzzle object having at least one actual
solution,” refers. We find nothing in Jacobs which acts in this manner. The “hint” of a
free letter in Jacobs clearly does not operate “automatically and without requiring user
input, successively providing over a period of time each of a plurality of portions of the
representation of the puzzle object having at least one actual solution.”
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