Appeal 2007-0376
Application 10/280,259
acknowledgement (Oral Hearing1) that this portion of the reference teaches
the use of two buses for coupling to crucial and non-crucial components.
While we agree with Appellants that the terms “crucial” and “critical”
are not identical, we find that Berstis uses the term “crucial” for the
components that are important in the operations of the vehicle which is
consistent with Appellants’ own disclosure stating that the “critical levels
reflect the importance of the function for the security of the motor vehicle in
its use” (Specification 4, ll. 14-16). Appellants further attempt to distinguish
the claims over Berstis by asserting that non-critical components may be
placed on the proprietary bus in Berstis as shown by element 15 in Figure 1
referring to “DASHBOARD CONTROL MODULE” which is not a critical
component (Oral Hearing). Although Berstis separates the nodes based on
how important they are for the operations of the vehicle in order to protect
them from failure due to unauthorized or inappropriate commands (Berstis,
col. 1, ll. 19-23), nonetheless, the nodes are separated into two groups as the
crucial nodes are coupled to a bus different than the one used for nodes that
are considered non-crucial.
1 Appellants’ representative presented oral arguments in this application at a
Hearing held on March 8, 2007.
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013