Appeal No. 1997-0322
Application 08/014,574
We consider first the rejection of claims 15, 16 and
23 based on the teachings of Helldörfer taken alone. We will
consider independent claim 15 as the representative claim for
this rejection. The examiner’s rejection basically asserts
that Helldörfer teaches the invention of claim 15 except for
the claimed weight setting means. The examiner observes that
the claimed weight setting means is nothing more than the use
of a conventional weighted average well known in statistical
processing. The examiner concludes that it would have been
obvious to the artisan to set weights as recited in claim 15
based on common statistical methods [answer, pages 13-14;
supplemental answer, pages 4-5].
Appellants argue that the weight factor k of
Helldörfer is not changed each cycle as recited in claim 15
and that the weight factor of a current cycle is not made
smaller than the weight factor of a previous cycle as the
magnitude of the deviation between a current cycle and a
standard azimuth circle increases. Appellants also argue that
the claimed means for deriving mean data using these
weightings is not taught or suggested by Helldörfer [brief,
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