Appeal No. 1998-0879
Application 08/251,730
the Examiner finds that the header and the escape code are
used together to indicate the compression technique (EA6).
While we agree with the Examiner's findings, the
analysis does not address Appellants' argument. Appellants
do not argue that the header and escape codes are not taken
together to indicate a compression technique. Instead,
Appellants' first argument is that the escape codes in
Kantner do not perform the claimed function of "an escape
code which indicates a common compression characteristic
shared by a plurality of digital data blocks following the
escape code." As to this limitation, considered in
isolation, Kantner's disclosure that the "escape codes can
indicate . . . run lengths of elementary units which are
unchanged or homogeneous" (col. 5, lines 40-42) teaches that
the escape code indicates a common compression
characteristic (unchanged or homogeneous) shared by a
plurality of data blocks (the number of blocks or elementary
units is indicated by the run length) following the escape
code. The limitation does not require that all data blocks
following the escape code share the common compression
characteristic. Therefore, Kantner literally meets this
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