Ex parte GUTTAG et al. - Page 9




          Appeal No. 96-0908                                                          
          Application 08/160,118                                                      

          buses for comparison and sets the sign bit of the conditional               
          code ('S' indicated at the register 15 in FIG. 1) to 0.  This               
          sign bit indicates that the result obtained by subtracting the              
          content of the second bus from the content of the first bus is              
          a positive value."  (Col. 4, lines 52-57.)                                  

          (1) Claims 1-3, 13-15, and 25-39                                            
               Appellants argue that the rejection fails to comply with               
          the requirements of 37 CFR § 1.106(b) and fails to give                     
          appellants fair notice of the portions of the references                    
          relied on (Br4-5).  The examiner's failure to comply with                   
          Patent and Trademark Office rules is a petitionable matter.                 
          The Board's jurisdiction is limited to those matters involving              
          the rejection of claims.  See In re Hengehold, 440 F.2d 1395,               
          1404, 169 USPQ 473, 480 (CCPA 1971).  The examiner's reasoning              
          in the Final Rejection could have been more detailed, but we                
          understand what was intended.  The references are not lengthy               
          and the pertinence of each is apparent.  The references as a                
          whole are relied on, not just the portions mentioned by the                 
          examiner.                                                                   
               Diefendorff discloses (col. 11, lines 26-30):                          
          "Alteratively [sic], a CONDITIONAL-STORE instruction executed               
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