Appeal No. 2006-1757
Application No. 10/116,522
unavailable devices.
We are unpersuaded by appellants' argument that step 202
(clearing the logical resource map) prevents the claimed skipping
step. As the examiner indicates, step 202 merely clears the
logical resource map, but the map is repopulated each time the
method of flow chart 200 is executed. In short, Cepulis'
sequential tagging of logical resources corresponding to failed
devices and reporting only devices that are available in step 216
reasonably constitutes skipping over identified failed devices.
Claim 1 is therefore fully met by Cepulis.
Regarding claims 8, 17, and 26, we also agree with the
examiner that registers are intrinsic to the types of NVRAM
devices used to store the failed device log in Cepulis (e.g., an
EEPROM or battery backed-up RAM). We find unpersuasive
appellants' assertion that "NVRAM is not known to use registers"
on page 15 of the brief. There is simply no evidence on this
record to support appellants' assertion. Such unsupported
statements are tantamount to mere lawyer’s arguments and
conclusory statements that, when unsupported by factual evidence,
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