Appeal No. 2005-1431
Application 09/442,070
that access[es] shared network resources provided by another computer (Microsoft Press))."
Appellants' response to the examiner's position as follows:
There is no further identification of the authority, and the third [sic, second]
edition of the Computer Dictionary by Microsoft Press (1994) does not have
definitions of the phrase "client workstation." However, the dictionary does have
definitions for the terms "client" and "workstation," neither of which require a
network connection. A copy of the pages from the dictionary including the
definitions is attached under Tab H.
Brief at 40. Those definitions read as follows:
client In object-oriented programming, a member of a class (group) that uses the
services of another class to which it is not related. In computing, a client is a
process (roughly, program or task) that requests a service provided by another
program---for example, a word processor that calls on a sort routine built into
another program. The client process uses the requested service without having to
"know" any working details about the other program or the service itself.
Compare child, descendant; see also inheritance.
On a shared local area network, a computer that accesses shared network
resources provided by another computer (called a server). See also client/server
architecture, server.
workstation In general, a combination of input, output, and computing hardware
that can be used for work by an individual. More often, however, the term refers
to a powerful stand-alone computer of the sort used in computer-aided design and
other applications requiring a high-end, usually expensive, machine ($10,000 and
up) with considerable calculating or graphics capability. Increasingly,
workstation is also used to refer to a microcomputer or terminal connected to a
network.
While these definitions considered separately do not define "client" or "workstation" as
necessarily referring to a network device, the term "client workstation" construed in light of both
definitions clearly does. The only paragraph of the "client" definition which is applicable to a
hardware device, such as a workstation, is the second, which explains that a client computer is a
network computer. Likewise, the modification of the term "workstation" by "client" makes it
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