Appeal No. 2006-1252 Page 5
Application No. 10/310,886
connection to provide an actual state of the corresponding machines without any
considerable time delay.
To permit an overview of the whole company plant assigned to the network
system, a plant overview module can be provided for outputting at least operative
states and plant overviews. For example, such a module would indicate states of
work stations, transportation sections of the assembly lines, or the like. The
various modes of operation of the different work stations can be, for example,
graphically highlighted in a corresponding plant overview by the module on the
basis of data received from the MDE/BDE module.
As pointed out by Scherer, all kinds of events can be recorded continuously
by the network computer and its associated event database system. Moreover, no
specific configuration of the individual components is needed because of the
network connection and the various components being able to communicate with
one another in a variable way via TCP/IP (col. 6, last para.).
In rejecting appellant’s claims, the examiner asserts that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of appellant’s invention, “to
use the web-based manufacturing network system [as taught by Scherer] to control
and monitor Whitmore’s spray gun” (answer, p. 3). Appellant (brief, p. 10) takes
issue with the examiner’s assertion because, according to appellant, Scherer simply
states that the computer system (manufacturing network system 1) is linked to local
control devices 4 with which work devices are associated and does not expressly
discuss controlling the control devices or work devices from the computer system.
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