Appeal No. 97-4173
Application 08/575,963
the “play machine” 19 of Fukuda. However, with regard to
claim 1, appellant argues that (brief page 6)
neither the Japanese publication or Wilhelm
teaches the concept of different coupon
values for being a coupon value located
within each segment of each reel. After
spinning of the reels, the reels come to[3]
rest aligning a segment from each reel to
produce a series of aligned segments.
These aligned segments represent a total
coupon value. No such structure is
believed to be shown or taught
by the Japanese publication or Wilhelm. It
is therefore believed that independent
Claim 1 defines novel subject matter over
applied references of record.
The examiner, on the other hand, takes the position that
(answer, page 5):
The appellant argues that the references
do not show a plurality of reels with dif-
ferent coupon values which when aligned
represent a total coupon value. It is the
examiner’s position that this is exactly
how gaming machines with spinning reels
such as those shown in [Fukuda] and Wilhelm
'048 work. Conventional operation in these
type gaming machines is that when the
3We note that in appellant’s disclosed apparatus, the
“reels” are electronic representations of reels on a monitor,
which are “spun” electronically (specification, pages 12 to
14).
4
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