Appeal No. 96-3372
Application No. 07/823,153
Cir. 1984). These showings by the examiner are an essential
part of complying with the burden of presenting a prima facie
case of obviousness. Note In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445,
24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
With respect to independent claim 8, the examiner
basically finds that Sharpe teaches all the features of claim
8 except for the bit-by-bit voting before the decoding
operation and the data buffer. The examiner cites Kikuchi as
teaching a majority voting circuit done on a bit-by-bit basis
before decoding. The examiner cites Shishikura as teaching
the claimed data buffer. The examiner concludes that it would
have been obvious to the artisan to use Kikuchi’s voter
circuit and Shishikura’s error correction circuit in Sharpe’s
cellular telephone [final rejection, pages 5-7].
Appellants basically rely on a single argument for
overturning the examiner’s rejection. Specifically,
appellants argue that none of Sharpe, Kikuchi or Shishikura
teaches or suggests the decoding of data on a continuous bit-
by-bit basis before all of the data has been received.
According to appellants, Kikuchi clearly states that all the
bits are received before they are applied to the voting
6
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