Appeal 2007-1535
Application 10/626,969
data bus 111 is confined within the housing 63 and hardly extends
throughout the vehicle as claimed.
Nykerk fares no better in this regard. As shown in Figure 4, the data
bus 64 is part of the control module 57 of the self-contained alarm system 55
(i.e., the “INVISIBEAM” system) (Nykerk, col. 9, ll. 59-63; col. 11, ll. 11-
21; Fig. 4). Significantly, the control module portion of the INVISIBEAM
system can be positioned in a suitable out-of-the-way location such as under
the dash or seat, or in the trunk area (Nykerk, col. 10, ll. 7-10). Because the
control module is relatively small to enable its placement in these confined
locations, the extent of the data bus 64 confined within this control module
in Nykerk is likewise limited. In short, Nykerk’s data bus 64 -- like the data
bus of Suman -- hardly extends throughout the vehicle as claimed.
We also disagree with the Examiner that merely interfacing the data
bus to the wire harness 30 via interface 88 in Nykerk effectively extends the
data bus throughout the vehicle as claimed. The wire harness 30 is a distinct
component from the data bus 64. (See Nykerk, col. 11, ll. 53-62; Fig. 4).
Although selected data signals can be amplified and buffered by interface 88
and then presented to the wire harness for routing to various devices, the
wire harness 30 is not a data bus as the term is understood by skilled artisans
(i.e., a data bus that carries data and address information to multiple devices
via the same set of wires). Simply put, a wire harness connects various
devices using dedicated, point-to-point wiring. A data bus, however, does
not require such dedicated wiring since each device can be separately
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