Appeal No. 1998-0629
Application 08/234,525
generating for said sequence of characters a set of
normalized attribute values using said set of attribute
values and said attribute value standard; and
recognizing said sequence of characters using said
set of normalized attribute values.
The Examiner relies on the following prior art:
Wilber et al. (Wilber) 4,897,880 January 30, 1990
Claims 16 and 37 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)
as being anticipated by Wilber.
Claims 1-15, 17-36, and 38-43 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wilber.2
We refer to the first Official Action (Paper No. 2), the
second Official Action (Paper No. 5), the Final Rejection
In the second Official Action (Paper No. 5), the2
Examiner changed the basis for the rejection of certain claims
from § 102(b) to § 103 over Wilber. The Examiner also
referred to Kelly et al., U.S. Patent 5,060,290, and Bruce et
al., U.S. Patent 5,396,566, as evidence of obviousness (Paper
No. 5, p. 4). However, Kelly and Bruce have not been made
part of the rejection and are not considered. See In re Hoch,
428 F.2d 1341, 1342 n.3, 166 USPQ 406, 407 n.3 (CCPA 1970)
("Where a reference is relied on to support a rejection,
whether or not in a 'minor capacity,' there would appear to be
no excuse for not positively including the reference in the
statement of the rejection."). Accord Manual of Patent
Examining Procedure (MPEP) § 706.02(j) (7th ed., Rev. 1, Feb.
2000); Ex parte Movva, 31 USPQ2d 1027, 1028 n.1 (Bd. Pat. App.
& Int. 1993); Ex parte Raske, 28 USPQ2d 1304, 1304-05 (Bd.
Pat. App. & Int. 1993); Ex parte Hiyamizu, 10 USPQ2d 1393,
1394 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1988).
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