Appeal No. 1997-3205
Application 08/389,545
degradation values surrounding an expected degradation value at a particular time point to generate an
index commensurate with an uncertainty at each time point, thereby providing an uncertainty index.
Appellants argue (Reply Brief, pages 4 to 5) that Clark fails to teach or suggest incorporating
probabilistic considerations into parameters which are conventionally deemed constants in deterministic
models. Appellants also argue (Reply Brief, pages 2 to 3) that Clark’s Figures 2A and 2B fail to teach
or suggest modifying a constant value of a deterministic model with a probabilistic deviation. We agree
on both counts, and find that Clark fails to teach or suggest treating a constant or deterministic
parameter as one which has plural deviant values around a best estimate value to create an uncertainty
index as set forth in claim 1.
We are in agreement with appellants (Reply Brief, page 2) that Clark’s Figure 2B, as described
at column 2, lines 33 to 45 of that patent, constitutes curves which are computed based on deterministic
models having constant parameters such as A, C, and E (constants employed in the deterministic
formulas listed at column 5). Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that Clark’s Figure 2B
represents a probabilistic variation of a parameter (tube metal temperature in Figure 2B) of a
deterministic model (such as that in Figure 2A), that parameter is not one which "is assumed to have a
constant value at each time point" as required by claim 1 and as aptly pointed out by appellants (Reply
Brief, pages 2 to 3).
We are also in agreement with appellants (Brief, page 10) that Maguire fails to teach or suggest
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