Appeal No. 1999-1845
Application No. 08/659,132
requirement is reduced as recited in the claims on appeal
[brief, pages 9-16]. Although Deering uses separate buffers
for storing depth values and color values, the examiner
responds that the same address location of each memory is used
to respectively store the depth and color values. The
examiner finds the language of the claimed invention to be met
by this operation.
We agree with appellant that a critical feature of the
disclosed invention is not taught or suggested by Deering and
Hardy. This critical feature is the use of the same memory
locations to separately store the depth values and the color
values. The question is whether appellant’s claims have
properly recited this feature.
A major part of the problem appears to be appellant’s use
of the phrase "depth and/or color values" or "depth or color
values" in the claims. Appellant is clearly ascribing a
meaning to the first phrase which requires that depth and
color values be considered together whereas the examiner is
essentially interpreting the first phrase as being met by
either depth values or color values. Thus, the examiner looks
at the two buffer memories of Deering as meeting the claimed
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