Appeal No. 1998-1903
Application No. 08/353,258
redundant characteristic of the bar code to the absence of
Hamming-distance problems. Therefore, Aleksander does not
suggest that redundancy is a result effective variable which
can be optimized. Thus, contrary to the examiner's assertion
(Final Rejection and Answer, page 5), Aleksander does not
suggest varying the redundancy of (or, rather, adding
redundancy to) the Gray code. In addition, there is no
teaching or even a hint in Aleksander as to how one would or
could add redundancy to the Gray code. The examiner's
motivation for doing so thus is based solely on hindsight.
Therefore, the examiner has failed to establish a prima facie
case of obviousness, and we cannot sustain the rejection of
claims 1, 12, 14, and 21 and their dependents, claims 2 and 7,
15, and 17.
Regarding claims 8 and 13, the examiner advances the same
line of reasoning considered supra for combining properties of
the bar code and the Gray code. Since we have already
determined that the references lack a teaching to modify the
Gray code, we will reverse the rejection of claims 8 and 13,
as well as claim 11, which depends from 8.
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