Appeal No. 2005-0233
Application 10/085,138
activation circuit must receive the sensed signals and the delay
signal, we agree with the examiner that Holmquest teaches this
feature. The activation circuit of Holmquest can be considered
to be transistor 107 which is the driving transistor for the
relay switch 23 [column 4, lines 15-16]. Driving transistor 107
receives signals from sensors 12-14 on common error bus 21.
Error voltages indicated on line 21 are subject to a preset delay
[column 4, lines 7-15]. Thus, the driving transistor 107 of
Holmquest receives signals from the sensing circuits as well as a
preset time delay signal. We find that this operation meets the
recitations of claim 1.
Although the delay and activation circuits of Holmquest
operate when the supervisory circuit of Holmquest is turned on,
we also agree with the examiner that Tran teaches the advantages
of checking for errors each time a circuit is turned on. We are
not persuaded by appellant’s argument that there is no motivation
for combining the teachings of Holmquest and Tran. Tran simply
confirms the fact that power supply voltages are likely to be
unreliable for a short period of time following a power-up
condition. We agree with the examiner that it would have been
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