Appeal No. 1997-4426
Application No. 08/515,767
independent claims on appeal before us as separately
patentable as argued by appellants.
With respect to each of the independent claims on
appeal, the examiner points to items in Hoshi which are deemed
to be the same as or equivalent to the claimed voltage level
detecting circuitry and the timer means. The examiner
apparently considers the control circuitry and the logic gate
circuitry of the claims to be nothing more than “dummy black
box means” which are no different from any other dummy empty
black box means. The examiner also notes that statements of
intended function cannot differentiate between structure. The
examiner then simply points to the differential amplifiers and
counters disclosed in Arimoto and concludes that it would have
been obvious to use such circuits in Hoshi [answer, pages 5-
6].
With respect to independent claim 29, we find that the
examiner has not only failed to provide an acceptable
motivation for combining the teachings of Arimoto with Hoshi,
but also failed to establish a prima facie case of the
obviousness of the claimed invention. The examiner’s
rejection on its face ignores specific language of the claims
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