Appeal 2007-1238
Application 10/037,595
communication protocol software module to temporarily store a received a
data frame. (Paragraph [0025].)
7. Nair teaches that a buffer manager allocates a memory buffer space to
a protocol software module to store a received data frame. The buffer
manager subsequently passes a pointer to all the protocol software modules
that desire to access the received data frame in the shared buffer space
without having to copy said data frame from one buffer space to another.
(Paragraph [0020] and [0021].)
PRINCIPLES OF LAW
1. OBVIOUSNESS (Prima Facie)
The Supreme Court in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17-18,
148 USPQ 459, 467 (1966), stated that three factual inquiries underpin any
determination of obviousness:
Under § 103, [1] the scope and content of the prior art are to be
determined; [2] differences between the prior art and the claims
at issue are to be ascertained; and [3] the level of ordinary skill
in the pertinent art resolved. Against this background, the
obviousness or nonobviousness of the subject matter is
determined. Such secondary considerations as commercial
success, long felt but unsolved needs, failure of others, etc.,
might be utilized to give light to the circumstances surrounding
the origin of the subject matter sought to be patented. As
indicia of obviousness or nonobviousness, these inquiries may
have relevancy.
Where the claimed subject matter involves more than the simple substitution
of one known element for another or the mere application of a known
technique to a piece of prior art ready for the improvement, a holding of
obviousness must be based on “an apparent reason to combine the known
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