Appeal No. 1998-1386 Page 26
Application No. 08/269,156
(Substitute Reply Br. at 6.) The examiner replies, “in col.
7, lines 20-21, Hullender teaches comparing two character
hypotheses by probability in reverse order ....”
(Supplemental Examiner’s Answer at 3.)
As mentioned regarding the anticipation by Fujisaki and
the obviousness over Fujisaki in view of Guyon, claims 1, 6,
and 9 each recite reverse-searching paths that comprise
character hypotheses corresponding to received data. The
examiner fails to show an unambiguous teaching of the claimed
limitations. The passage of Hullender relied on by is a
comment in a program listing that merely states, “/* Routine
to compare two hypotheses by probability for qsort in reverse
order (most probable first)[.] */” Col. 7, ll. 20-21. The
passage is ambiguous at best. The passage possibly could be
interpreted as teaching reverse-searching paths that comprise
character hypotheses corresponding to received data. It also
could be interpreted, however, as teaching sorting hypotheses
probabilities, i.e., most probable first.
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