User manual

ECE 477 Final Report Spring 2004
that the patent specifically mentions wired communication and the project specifically calls for
wireless. This is a substantially different way of communicating.
Action Recommended to Avoid Infringement
For patent D371,054 it would be best to avoid an arrangement of LEDs that looks similar
to the arrangement depicted in the figures published with the patent. As it is a design patent,
only the final appearance of the project would be considered an infringement.
For patent 6,681,109 it would be necessary to go into detail about the purpose of the
project, focus on the difference in function of these two ideas. Proving the method of
implementing the claims of each idea would be more difficult as both use wireless
communication and simple authentication protocols. The biggest difference lies in the user
interface, but both require the user to push buttons. The focus of the patent is in a system of
communicating with servers and the focus of the project is to facilitate a diner’s eating
experience by reducing the setup time to eat.
For patent 6,208,976 the definition of the project should suffice to avoid patent
infringement. While both ideas use the same menu structure and display, one communicates to a
central computer wirelessly and the other does not. If this is not a sufficient difference, it would
be necessary to alter the menu layout. It could be argued that a hierarchical menu organization is
an obvious organization and therefore not subject to grounds of infringement.
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