Appeal No. 2003-1986
Application 09/315,200
"type=upd_98409245" for last update timestamp in appellant's
Fig. 5A (see also specification at page 22) and concludes that it
must be a meta-data attribute (EA12). In addition, the examiner
was faced with the not so simple job of determining what is true
data and what is meta-data. As acknowledged by appellant, "[t]he
distinction between meta-data and true-data may be conceptually
difficult" (Br7). However, on balance, appellant has convinced
us of the correctness of his position.
Thomas does not use the terms "true data" and "meta-data,"
which makes our job difficult. Part of the problem is the
definition of terms. The specification defines an "attribute" as
a "key=value pair" (page 10). The specification defines
"true-data attribute" and "meta-data attribute" as (page 20):
For clarity, a true-data attribute is defined herein as an
attribute that contains a value (e.g. data, external
reference, or binding) used by a user entity or client. A
meta-data attribute is defined as an attribute associated
with a true-data attribute which contains information used
and maintained by the core profile engine 201 (shown in
Fig. 2).
"True data" is the actual data to be used. "Meta-data" is data
about the "true data." The following definition of "meta-data"
is from "www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/":
Data that describes other data. The term may refer to
detailed compilations such as data dictionaries and
repositories that provide a substantial amount of
information about each data element. It may also refer to
any descriptive item about data, such as the content of an
HTML meta tag or a title field in a media file.
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