Appeal No. 1999-1123
Application No. 08/576,915
function as a high impedance to limit current drawn through
transistor 49a to a small value” (column 8, lines 1 through
3).
Higuchi discloses a LED drive circuit for an LED printer
(Figure 1). Higuchi recognizes that in such printers non-
uniform dots of light and dark are created because of the
differences of the emitted light intensity from individual
LEDs (translation, page 2). To solve this problem, Higuchi
provides a plurality of correction MOSFETs 4-1 through 6-1 to
supplement main MOSFET 3-1. Correction data signals determine
which ones of the correction MOSFETS are turned on at the same
time that the main MOSFET is turned on to form a compound
current signal that is used to drive LED 8-1 (translation,
page 5).
Appellants argue (brief, pages 6 and 7) that neither
Dahlquist nor Higuchi teaches or would have suggested
controlling the driving current for one printing dot based on
a combination of correction data and gradation data, and that
there is a lack of motivation to combine the teachings of the
references. With respect to the portion of Kapes referenced
by the examiner, appellants argue (brief, page 9) that “it
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