Appeal No. 1997-1586
Application No. 08/183,671
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed
claims are:
Harrison, III, et al. (Harrison) 3,662,374 May 9, 1972
Barnett et al. (Barnett) 4,653,100 Mar. 24, 1987
Claims 1-3 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Harrison
in view of Barnett.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and the
appellants regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the examiner's
answer (Paper No. 11, mailed Mar. 4, 1997) for the examiner's reasoning in support of the
rejections, and to the appellants’ brief (Paper No. 10, filed Dec. 16, 1996) and reply brief
(Paper No. 13, filed Jun. 6, 1997) for the appellants’ arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to the
appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the examiner. As a consequence of
our review, we make the determinations which follow.
Appellants argue that the prior art to Harrison does not teach or suggest the
determination of mouth shape characteristics/features determined on the basis of vocal
3
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