Appeal No. 2000-0142 Page 16
Application No. 08/705,569
Turning to the subject matter being claimed, claim 19
specifies in pertinent part the following limitations: “a
resistance capacitance (RC) circuit that is substantially
independent of the resistance value of the reference
resistor.” Giving the claim its broadest reasonable
interpretation, the limitations do not require that an RC
circuit be independent of the reference resistor as implied by
the appellants’ argument. All that is required is that an RC
circuit be substantially independent of the reference
resistor.
Turning to the anticipation of the subject matter, the
passage of De La Plaza cited by the examiner and appellants
discloses that the reference’s R C circuit is substantially
2 3
independent of its resistor R . Specifically, “in the circuit
1
according to the invention, the integration time constant is
substantially given by the product R C . . . .” Col. 6, ll.
2 3
45-47 (emphasis added). Although the passage also mentions an
“assumption . . . that R is much smaller than R ,” id. 47-48,1 2
the assumption does not defeat the substantial independence of
Page: Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007