Appeal No. 1999-0301
Application No. 08/156,541
Claim 20 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Kohgami in view of Yomiya.
The respective positions of the examiner and the appellants with regard to the
propriety of these rejections are set forth in the final rejection and the examiner’s answer
(Paper Nos. 18 and 23, respectively) and the appellants’ brief and reply brief (Paper Nos.
22 and 26, respectively).
The Rejection of Claims 21, 22, 24 and 25
Under 35 U.S.C. § 112, Second Paragraph
The inquiry to be made concerning the second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112 is
merely to determine whether the claims do, in fact, set out and circumscribe a particular
area with a reasonable degree of precision and particularly when read by the artisan in
light of the disclosure and the relevant prior art. In re Moore, 439 F.2d 1232, 1235, 169
USPQ 236, 238 (CCPA 1971). The examiner’s position at page 3 of the answer is as
follows,
The recitation of “said duration of a first of said at least two bits” and
“said duration of a more significant of said at least two bits” in claims 21-22
and 24-25 is unclear since it is unknown that the first bit is [sic} more
significant bit or less significant bit and a first bit and a more significant bit is
not consistent.
We will not sustain the rejection of these claims. It appears clear to us that the
recitations of a “first” bit in claims 21 and 22 and of a “more significant” bit in claims 24
3
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