Appeal 2007-0926
Application 09/818,303
structure, so that the precise question is identified by the user.
However, users may find this approach somewhat tedious.” Or,
second, by “mak[ing] assumptions as to what the user’s precise
questions are.” (Col. 16, ll. 59 to 68). This second choice,
making assumptions concerning the user’s true meaning, is the
preferred approach disclosed in Reimer. (Id.).
4. We do not find any teaching in Reimer prompting the user
about an ambiguity in the question, or indeed about any need to
reformulate or recast the query.
Findings with respect to the rejection of claims 3, 12, 30, and 39 under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) for being obvious over Reimer in view of Wang.
5. Wang presents a general purpose search engine architecture
“designed to handle a full range of user queries, from complex
sentence-based queries to simple keyword searches. The search
engine architecture includes a natural language parser that
parses a user query and extracts syntactic and semantic
information.” (Col. 2, l. 59 ff).
6. Wang teaches that access to the server computer may be
through “a network 106, such as the Internet”. (Col. 4, l. 47).
7. Wang also teaches a user interface that, in conjunction with the
user, ascertains if the query is accurate or not, and prompts the
user to provide input to confirm the intended meaning of the
question. See Column 14, lines 23 to 27 and lines 42 to 46.
6
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