Appeal No. 97-4293
Application No. 08/138,396
requires only that the read event be accomplished “at a
selected time.” They also note that claim 27 requires that an
array of sensors be scanned, a limitation not present in claim
13.
As to the first situation, it is our view that,
notwithstanding the failure of patent claim 13 to recite a
“switch,” it would be understood that there must in fact be
such a device in order to activate the apparatus so that a
read event will occur at a “selected time.” And, because
claim 13 requires that the selected time be “during an
interval within which the person employs said prosthesis
whereby each respective force signal is used to generate an
output signal indicative of the pressure sensed by the
respective sensor,” we believe one would recognize that the
switch that accomplishes this must be disposed on the
prosthesis. As for the requirement in claim 27 of scanning an
array of sensors to generate the required output signals,
claim 13 recites “a plurality of pressure sensors,” the force
signals of which are monitored as a read event. In our view,
this could be accomplished only by scanning an array of
sensors.
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