Appeal No. 96-2551
Application 08/037,767
cannot operate in this manner. Thus, it is clear that the claimed
discharging of the first capacitor (C4, C5) occurs after Q3 begins
to conduct but before D2, D3, D5, and D6 begin to conduct.
Consequently, we will not sustain the § 112 rejection of claim 1
or the § 112 rejection of dependent claim 2, which was rejected
for the same reasons as claim 1.
The examiner contends that dependent claim 3, which
specifies that the precharging means of claim 2 "comprises a third
controlled switch coupled between a voltage source and the first
capacitor" (examiner's emphasis) is misdescriptive of transistor
Q5, whose base-emitter path is used to precharge the first
capacitor (C4, C5) (Spec. at page 14, lines 20-26). According to
the examiner, the claim language would be understood to mean that
the switched terminals of the switch (i.e., the emitter and
collector of a transistor) are connected between the voltage
source and the first capacitor, which whereas in the disclosed
arrangement only one of the switched terminals (the emitter) and
the control terminal (the base) are connected between the voltage
source and the first capacitor. We agree with appellant that
since the claim does not specify which terminals of the controlled
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