Ex parte Schoch

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Apr 13, 1999

08056739 (B.P.A.I. Apr. 13, 1999)

Application for patent filed April 30, 1993. According1
to appellant, the application is a continuation of Application
No. 07/849,796, filed March 11, 1992, which is a continuation
of Application No. 07/514,649, filed April 25, 1990.
THIS OPINION WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION
The opinion in support of the decision being entered
today (1) was not written for publication in a law
journal and (2) is not binding precedent of the
Board.
Paper No. 48
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
____________
Ex parte KEVIN SCHOCH
____________
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,7391
____________
ON BRIEF
____________
Before HAIRSTON, MARTIN, and GROSS, Administrative Patent
Judges.
HAIRSTON, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal from the final rejection of claims 5
through 8, 10, 17 through 22, 26 and 30 through 36. Claims 23
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
2
through 25, 28 and 29 are allowed, and claims 11 and 27 are
objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but
would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including
all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening
claims.
The disclosed invention relates to a communications
system wherein a terminal mapping means maps each one of a
plurality of data terminals to a terminal group. The terminal
mapping means changes the number of data terminals in a group,
and the number of groups, in response to a count of the number
of unsuccesful attempts by the data terminal to transmit a
data message. An unsuccessful attempt to transmit occurs when
two or more data terminals within a terminal group attempt to
transmit data messages in response to a polling signal.
Claim 5 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it
reads as follows:
5. A communication system comprising:
a plurality of data terminals capable of transmitting and
receiving data messages, each data terminal associated with a
unique terminal identification number; and
terminal mapping means for mapping each data terminal to
a terminal group and for dynamically adjusting the number of
terminals in a group to be between a predetermined maximum
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
3
number of terminals and predetermined minimum number of
terminals, each data terminal being adapted to respond, if
having a data message to transmit, to a polling signal made to
the group to which the data terminal is mapped;
wherein an unsuccessful attempt occurs when two or more
data terminals within a terminal group attempt to transmit
data messages in response to a given polling signal;
wherein each data terminal maintains a count of the
number of unsuccessful attempts it has made for each data
message transmission and transmits this count to the terminal
mapping means when each data message transmission is
successfully completed; and
wherein the terminal mapping means changes the number of
terminals in a group and the number of groups in response to
the last count of the number of unsuccessful attempts to
transmit a data message that it received from a data terminal.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Haas et al. (Haas) 3,755,781 Aug. 28,
1973
Brophy et al. (Brophy) 4,071,908 Jan. 31,
1978
Hopkins et al. (Hopkins) 4,161,786 July
17, 1979
Citta 4,528,663 July 9,
1985
Cotie et al. (Cotie) 4,667,193 May 19,
1987
Claims 5 through 8, 10, 26 and 30 through 36 stand
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Brophy in view of Citta.
Claims 17, 18, 21 and 22 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
4
§ 103 as being unpatentable over Brophy in view of Citta and
Haas.
Claim 19 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Brophy in view of Citta, Haas and Hopkins.
Claim 20 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Brophy in view of Citta, Haas, Hopkins and
Cotie.
Reference is made to the briefs and the answer for the
respective positions of the appellant and the examiner.
OPINION
The obviousness rejection of claims 5 through 8, 10, 17
through 22, 26 and 30 through 36 is reversed.
All of the claims on appeal require that each data
terminal maintain or keep a count of unsuccessful attempts to
transmit a data message, and to transmit that count with the
data message to a terminal mapping means which uses that
unsuccessful count to change the number of data terminals in a
terminal group.
The polling station 101 in Brophy (Figure 1) "determines
the quantity of message traffic by measuring the duration of
time required to complete a polling sequence and, utilizing
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
5
this measurement, calculates the polling level number for the
initial polling word of the next polling sequence" (column 3,
lines 47 through 53). In successive polling sequences, each
polling sequence starts with "an initial poll word which is
directed to a group of stations whose size is inversely
related to the loading of the system, wherein during a very
lightly loaded period the sequence starts at the highest level
000 and wherein during a very heavily loaded period, the
sequence starts at the lowest poll level 100, at which level
each station is individually polled" (column 5, lines 17
through 25). "Advantageously, the quantity of messages
collected [by the polling station 101] is calculated by
measuring the duration of polling . . . time required to
collect the messages" (column 1, lines 56 through 59). "The
size of the station group is advantageously calculated to be
inversely related to the duration of polling time" (column 1,
lines 60 through 62). Thus, any changes to the station groups
in Brophy are made based upon a measure of the time duration
required for the polling station 101 to poll the stations 0000
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
6
through 1111, and for the polling station 101 to collect the
messages from the stations.
Citta is concerned with peak upstream loading in a two-
way cable television (CATV) contention system. During
upstream retransmissions by subscriber terminals 11 to CATV
headend 12, a transmission window time (Figure 5) is a
function of the upstream message traffic load. In other
words, the number of attempts by subscribers 11 to retransmit
to the CATV headend 12 is directly related to the upstream
transmission window size time (Figure 5; column 7, lines 23
through 37).
Based upon the foregoing, we agree with appellant (Brief,
page 13) that "[t]he patents, when viewed alone or in
combination, fail to suggest any incentive for a person of
ordinary skill in the art to modify the data terminals to
transmit an unsuccessful attempt count to the terminal mapping
means or to modify the terminal mapping means to remap based
on an unsuccessful attempt count instead of the time it takes
to collect all available messages during a probing cycle."
In summary, the obviousness rejection of claims 5 through
8, 10, 26 and 30 through 36 is reversed.
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
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The obviousness rejection of claims 17 through 22 is
reversed because the teachings of Haas, Hopkins and Cotie
cannot cure the noted shortcomings in the teachings of Brophy
and Citta.
DECISION
The decision of the examiner rejecting claims 5 through
8, 10, 17 through 22, 26 and 30 through 36 under 35 U.S.C. §
103 is reversed.
REVERSED
KENNETH W. HAIRSTON )
Administrative Patent Judge )
)
)
)
) BOARD OF PATENT
JOHN C. MARTIN ) APPEALS
Administrative Patent Judge ) AND
) INTERFERENCES
)
)
)
ANITA PELLMAN GROSS )
Administrative Patent Judge )
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
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lp
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
9
MARK D. SARALINO
RENNER, OTTO, BOISSELLE & SKLAR, PLL
1621 EUCLID AVENUE
19TH FLOOR
CLEVELAND OH 44115
Leticia
Appeal No. 96-0734
Application No. 08/056,739
APJ HAIRSTON
APJ GROSS
APJ MARTIN
DECISION: REVERSED
Send Reference(s): Yes No
or Translation (s)
Panel Change: Yes No
Index Sheet-2901 Rejection(s): _____
Prepared: December 6, 1999
Draft Final
3 MEM. CONF. Y N
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PALM / ACTS 2 / BOOK
DISK (FOIA) / REPORT