Appeal No. 1996-3324
Application No. 08/132,969
digital code partitioned into most significant and least
significant bit portions, thereby establishing a dependent
relationship among these input signals. Since the claimed
independent nature of the digital input signals is not
disclosed in the Data Converter Reference Manual, the
Examiner’s 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection of claims 1-4 is not
well founded and cannot be sustained.
The rejection of claims 1-4, 6, and 7
as anticipated by Okuyama.
In making this 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection, the Examiner
(Answer, page 5) has indicated how the claim limitations of
independent claim 1 are read on the disclosure of Okuyama. In
particular, the Examiner refers to Figure 1 of Okuyama and
characterizes the voltage divider ladder and switch
combination (26 and S11-S24) controlled by digital signals
from registers R11 and R12 as corresponding to the claimed
second and third D/A converters.
Appellant’s representative at oral hearing, contrary to
the position taken in the Brief, acquiesced to the Examiner’s
interpretation of Okuyama’s digitally controlled ladder-switch
combination as being a D/A converter, contending only that
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