Appeal 2007-1361
Application 09/681,573
A. INVENTION
The invention at issue on appeal "publishes," i.e., disseminates,
electronic documents to a document management system ("DMS") in
various formats. (Specification ¶ 0001.) To print a document, software
applications temporarily route control of the document to a printing program
called a "printer driver." Regardless of which application is seeking to print,
the printer driver displays the same screens. Besides enabling a user to
select a printer, the screens sometimes allow a user to select output
parameters. For example, he may specify a range of pages or a number of
copies to print. (Id. ¶ 0002.)
A user may need to convert an electronic document from its native
format to another format for access by another user. For example, an
individual seeking access to a document created using a "[personal
computer- ("PC-")] based word processing application" may use a "non-PC-
based word processing application." (Id. ¶ 0003.)
Accordingly, upon receipt of an instruction to publish an electronic
document, the Appellants' printer driver retrieves the document and displays
a graphical user interface ("GUI") that allows a user to select a publication
format, e.g., the portable document format ("PDF"). Upon receipt of such a
selection, the driver may convert the document into the selected format. The
driver then transmits the converted document to a system for publication
thereof. (Id. ¶¶ 0003, 0010, 0012.)
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013