Appeal No. 2001-2620
Application No. 09/110,613
(citing In re Beattie, 974 F.2d 1309, 1311, 24 USPQ2d 1040, 1041
(Fed. Cir. 1992)). Here the Examiner characterizes the
difference in the RGB encoding of each zone in the prior art as
determining a color distance between similar colors which will
result in comparing the proportions of the same red, green and
blue components of each partition that is recited in the step of
“comparing the proportions of the similar colors.” As pointed
out by Appellant (reply brief, page 4), this interpretation of
the RGB value as the color distance between similar colors
results in inconsistent reading of the “color difference” and
“similar colors.” In that regard, if the Examiner urges that the
proportions of colors in each partition is determined according
to their RGB encoding, a color distance between similar colors in
each partition will require determining a color distance between
similar colors such as red components which, as argued by
Appellant (id.), is meaningless.
In view of the discussion above, we find that the claimed
steps of “determining a color distance between similar colors in
each corresponding partition” and “comparing the proportions of
the similar colors in each of the partitions” are absent in the
method for color information matching of Hirata. Claim 7
includes similar limitations related to the similarity measures
determined by the proportions of similar colors and the color
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007