Appeal No. 96-0948 Page 8
Application No. 08/262,400
systems employ multiple apertures “to allow each sensor to
view the targets simultaneously.” This would suggest that an
“aperture” is an opening through which a sensor views the
target in the fire control mode, and that in the prior art
each sensor was provided with a separate aperture. Such a
conclusion appears to be confirmed on page 9, where it is
stated that the present invention “provides a boresight
mechanism that utilizes fixed optical components and a common
aperture telescope to reduce boresight error buildup”
(emphasis added). Therefore, in the absence of any direction
otherwise in the appellants’ specification, it is our opinion
that the telescope is the “common aperture” recited in the
preamble of claim 12. Although a telescope is not shown in
the Sud drawings, it is described in column 4 as being part of
the system, receiving the beams from mirror 42 (line 22 et
seq.), and is “common” in that all of the beams projected and
returned from the device when in the fire control mode pass
through it.
We therefore conclude that the subject matter of claim 12
is anticipated by Sud, and we will sustain this rejection. In
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