Appeal No. 1998-2675
Application 08/779,024
modify Eguchi to place the microphone 3 of Eguchi in an
expanded room (Br6). The Examiner responds that it would have
been obvious to use an expanded room for housing the ANC
device in Eguchi in order to protect the microphone under
extreme conditions (EA7).
As we have noted, the purpose of the enlarged room in
Chaplin is to make the pressure from the driver more uniform
around the microphone. There is no reason why one skilled in
the art, given the teachings of Chaplin, would have sought to
locate the upstream noise pickup microphone of Eguchi in an
enlarged room because it is not located next to a driver.
Accordingly, we conclude that the Examiner has failed to
establish a prima facie case of obviousness as to independent
claims 1, 10, and 11. The references to Rose, Gotoda, and
Nelson, applied to the dependent claims, do not cure the
deficiencies of Eguchi and Chaplin. Thus, the rejections of
claims 3-5, 8, and 9 are also reversed.
- 10 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007