Appeal No. 1999-0156
Application 08/555,901
Murase does not perform gain equalization over the wavelength bands of an input signal
as claimed.
We agree with appellants. Murase is only concerned with suppressing peak pulses
that can occur at the time that an input signal is first received by the amplifier. The
suppression of these peak pulses has nothing to do with equalizing the gain of the input
light signal as claimed. The examiner’s position that the Murase device inherently
performs gain equalization is totally without merit. Therefore, we do not agree with the
examiner’s new position in the answer that the claimed invention is fully met by the
disclosure of Murase, and consequently, we do not sustain this particular form of the
rejection.
We now consider the rejection of the appealed claims based on the collective
teachings of Murase and Nakabayashi. The examiner cites Murase as teaching the
control of an optical amplifier based on an input signal. Murase suppresses peak pulses
based on an input light signal, but Murase has nothing to do with gain equalization as
noted above. The examiner cites Nakabayashi as teaching a gain equalization means for
an optical amplifier. The gain equalization means of Nakabayashi is based on a feedback
signal from the amplifier rather than from an input light signal as claimed. The examiner
finds that it would have been obvious to replace the feedforward control of Murase with the
feedback control of Nakabayashi [answer, pages 5-7].
Appellants argue that there is no motivation to combine the teachings of Murase
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