Appeal No. 1997-3911
Application 08/368,758
calling for the switching means to “selectively switch[] the
access by the address control means from the defective
information part in the read-only information storage means to
the correcting information stored in the correcting
information storage means,” clearly requires that the
correcting information stored in the correcting information
storage means be the information that is to be substituted for
the defective information. In Patrick, that information is
stored in PROM 40 rather than in memory 44, which instead
stores one-bit data identifying the ROM addresses of defective
information. As Patrick's memories 40 and 44 correspond
respectively to Yamaguchi's PROM 6 and register 7, the effect
of applying Patrick's RAM suggestion to Yamaguchi would be to
replace Yamaguchi's register 7 rather than PROM 6 with a RAM,
which would not satisfy the claim.
The rejection is also unconvincing to the extent it is
based on the assertions that replacement of Yamaguchi's on-
chip PROM 6 with an on-chip RAM would have been obvious
because they are “functional equivalents” and that choosing
one or the other is therefore a matter of “design choice. The
examiner has not explained, and it is not apparent to us, why
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