Appeal No. 97-3918
Application 08/447,901
variability are present, the examiner's position fails because
the prior art playback circuit does not selectively adjust the
gain "at predetermined times relative to the initiation of a
recording mode and to the initiation of a reproducing mode,"
as required by claim 2. The rejection of claims 2 and 9 as
anticipated by the prior art playback circuit shown in
appellants' Figure 22 therefore is reversed.
The examiner's argument for obviousness, which presumes
that the amplifier does not inherently have variable gain, is
that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill
in the art to have provided a notoriously well known
and conventional variable gain type amplifier.
The motivation for this modification would have been
to provide a more flexible system. A fixed gain
amplifier device would possess only limited utility.
[Final Office action at 4-5.]
The Answer further explains (at 4, lines 5-8) that the artisan
would have been motivated "to make a more flexible system,
since a constant gain amplifier would be very vulnerable to
fluctuations in signal level, while a variable gain amplifier
could adapt to such variations." This reasoning fails to
explain why the artisan would have been motivated to control
the gain in the manner required by claim 2, i.e., to
"selectively adjust[] the gain at predetermined times relative
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