Prior art

USPTO Search for Patent Number 0220967

A direct search of the USPTO database for the specific patent number 0220967 does not yield an issued US patent. As previously established in the "Executive Summary" and "Litigation Summary" sections, this number corresponds to a US Patent Application Publication, US 2004/0220967 A1. Patent numbers for granted utility patents typically consist of 6 to 8 digits, and specific formatting rules apply for other patent types (e.g., design, plant, reissue). The input "0220967" does not conform to the typical format of a granted US patent.

Therefore, the prior art analysis will be conducted for US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0220967 A1.

Most Relevant Prior Art for US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0220967 A1

To identify the most relevant prior art, we would typically examine the "References Cited" section of the patent application publication. This section lists documents that the applicant or the patent examiner considered relevant to the patentability of the claimed invention.

However, the specific claims and the comprehensive list of cited prior art for US 2004/0220967 A1 could not be authoritatively retrieved in a detailed, claim-by-claim format from the initial searches. Without the full text of the claims and the examiner's citations, a definitive, in-depth analysis of which prior art potentially anticipates specific claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102 is not possible at this time.

Generally, prior art can anticipate a claim if it describes, either expressly or inherently, each and every limitation of that claim.

Based on the abstract and title of US 2004/0220967 A1 ("System and method for navigating a hierarchical data structure"), relevant prior art would likely include:

• File system navigation techniques: This would encompass existing methods and systems for browsing and managing files and folders on a computer, including graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that display hierarchical structures.
• Tree-view interfaces: Software interfaces that visually represent hierarchical data using a tree-like structure, allowing users to expand and collapse branches.
• Search and filtering algorithms for hierarchical data: Prior art related to efficient methods for locating specific items within complex data hierarchies.
• Early graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and operating systems: Fundamental patents and publications describing the foundational elements of interactive computing with hierarchical data.

To provide a more concrete analysis, the full text of the patent application, including its claims and "References Cited" section, would need to be accessed. The USPTO's Patent Public Search tool can be used to search for patent application publications by publication number.

Note on Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102):
For a prior art reference to anticipate a claim under 35 U.S.C. § 102, it must disclose every element of the claimed invention, arranged as in the claim. If any single claim limitation is not present in the prior art, either explicitly or inherently, then that prior art cannot anticipate the claim. The prior art date of a U.S. patent application publication is its filing date, not its publication date, for purposes of certain prior art analyses.