Appeal No. 96-1637
Application 08/130,940
wires are deployed along the surface of sea ice. Hine teaches
antenna wires buried in the earth or located in the sea to take
advantage of the “almost perfect conductivity and extremely low
impedance” of these environments. Hine does not teach that one or
more antenna wires are deployed on a surface, let alone on a
surface of sea ice. It has not been explained why one of ordinary
skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify Hine to
deploy his antenna wires on a surface such as the sea ice surface
of the claims. In re Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d 1780,
1783-1784 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
The Rejection of Claims 1-14 under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as Obvious over Hine and Rogers
We will sustain the rejection of claims 1, 2, 7, 10, 11,
13 and 14 as obvious over Hine and Rogers but will not sustain the
rejection of claims 3-6, 8, 9, and 12 as obvious over the prior
art. With respect to the two arguments made by appellants
with respect to claim 1, the antenna of Rogers, like appellants’
device, is a wire antenna. There is no rebuttal of the examiner’s
-6-
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