Appeal No. 1997-2212 Page 7
Application No. 08/233,387
assign a meaning to the term different from its ordinary and
accustomed meaning, that is the meaning we must give it.
Those skilled in the art would have understood that a
decompiler is “[a] program that takes ... machine code and
attempts to generate high-level source code from it ....”
Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary 114 (2d ed. 1994) (copy
attached). In view of this understanding, the limitations
recite translating executable machine code into higher-level
source code that is architecture-independent.
The examiner fails to show a teaching or suggestion of
the claimed limitations. “Obviousness may not be established
using hindsight or in view of the teachings or suggestions of
the inventor.” Para-Ordnance Mfg. v. SGS Importers Int’l, 73
F.3d 1085, 1087, 37 USPQ2d 1237, 1239 (Fed. Cir. 1995), cert.
denied, 519 U.S. 822 (1996) (citing W.L. Gore & Assocs., Inc.
v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1551, 1553, 220 USPQ 303,
311, 312-13 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851
(1984)). The mere fact that prior art may be modified as
proposed by an examiner does not make the modification obvious
unless the prior art suggested the desirability thereof. In
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