Appeal No. 2003-0513 Page 5
Application No. 08/655,879
expressly or inherently described, in a single prior art reference." Verdegaal Bros., Inc.
v. Union Oil Co., 814 F.2d 628, 631, 2 USPQ2d 1051, 1053 (Fed. Cir. 1987) (citing
Structural Rubber Prods. Co. v. Park Rubber Co., 749 F.2d 707, 715, 223 USPQ 1264,
1270 (Fed. Cir. 1984); Connell v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 722 F.2d 1542, 1548, 220
USPQ 193, 198 (Fed. Cir. 1983); Kalman v. Kimberly-Clark Corp., 713 F.2d760, 771,
218 USPQ 781, 789 (Fed. Cir. 1983)). "[A]bsence from the reference of any claimed
element negates anticipation." Kloster Speedsteel AB v. Crucible, Inc., 793 F.2d 1565,
1571, 230 USPQ 81, 84 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
Here, Klein "relates generally to distributed processing computer systems in
which a distributed application is performed by multiple . . . agents that coordinate their
computations by exchanging messages." Col. 1, ll. 5-8. "Agents receive notifications
from other agents about the outcome of external events. Each agent processes those
notifications not only to determine which local events are enabled by those notifications,
but also to make inferences about external event states in other agents." Col. 11, ll. 45-
50. "Before sending a notification to another agent . . . the sending agent checks the
state of that external event and state of the conditions (i.e., the TrueCondition and
FalseCondition) associated with external event." Id. at ll. 53-57. "If the locally known
condition for the external event depends on a local event, all outgoing notifications for
that external event are delayed." Id. at ll. 59-62. More specifically, "[n]otifications of
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