Appeal No. 2003-1334
Application No. 09/651,714
examples of Coia, O’Neill, and Wilkinson (which shows this type
of A/D conversion technique being used in a digital controller on
board an automobile).”
Based upon the teachings of the references, the examiner
concludes (answer, page 5) that “[s]ince the device of Gagnon
needs an A/D converter to even be operative, it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a commonly
used A/D converter circuit design, such as the type show [sic,
shown] by Wilkinson, in the system of Gagnon motivated by the
circuit’s known suitability for its intended use.”
As indicated supra, we agree with the examiner that Gagnon
needs an A/D converter for proper operation. We do not, however,
agree with the examiner that Gagnon needs an A/D converter
configured as in either one of Coia, O’Neill or Wilkinson. We
find that the output from the primary reference to Gagnon is a
weight value whereas the outputs from all of the secondary
references are not weight values. The examiner’s proffered
reasoning of “the circuit’s known suitability for its intended
use” does not satisfactorily explain why the skilled artisan
would modify Gagnon’s weight value input to the microprocessor
with a time impulse signal in Coia (Abstract; column 1, lines 6
through 9), a digital signal and a remainder signal in O’Neill
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