Appeal No. 97-3451
Application 08/325,832
and a servo signal decoder is further evident through the
appellant’s regarding claim 1 as being representative (Br. at 8)
and also through the following text on page 8 of the brief:
The claims support the distinction. Claim 1, for
example, recites:
a comparator circuit that receives an analog
readback signal . . . and generates a thermometer code
output;
a data channel decoder that receives data channel
thermometer code information from the comparator
circuit . . .; [emphasis in original] and
a servo signal decoder that receives servo signal
thermometer code information from the comparator
circuit . . . . [emphasis in original]
[a]ll of the independent claims contain similar
limitations. The Cheung system does not include
decoders for either the data channel or the servo
signal that receive thermometer code information.
We note further that in the "Summary of Invention" section
of the appeal brief, the appellant states (Br. at 5):
From the comparator circuit 128, the converted readback
signal is provided to a servo signal decoder 134 and
then to a servo controller 127, and also is provided
from the comparator to a data channel decoder 130, to a
data channel logic circuit 132, and then to a "data
channel bus" 124.
On the basis of the foregoing, it cannot be reasonably
disputed that the appellant, at least in this appeal, has based
his argument for patentability on the position that the claimed
invention requires a thermometer code to be generated and
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