Ex parte KATO - Page 7




          Appeal No. 1999-2018                                                         
          Application 08/571,204                                                       

          Claims 1-4 and 6-8                                                           
               Anticipation                                                            
               The limitation at issue in claim 2 is "selecting a                      
          predictive coding mode based upon the values of [distance]."                 
          We find this limitation anticipated by Sugiyama because:                     
          (1) it only requires selecting one ("a") predictive coding                   
          mode based on distance, not one of several predictive coding                 
          modes based on distance, and is met by Sugiyama's selection                  
          of the bidirectionally predictive mode based on distance;                    
          and (2) the term "distance" does not distinguish over the                    
          forward and backward estimation error values in Sugiyama,                    
          which are used to select one of three predictive coding                      
          modes.                                                                       
                                        (1)                                            
               Appellant argues that Sugiyama uses inter picture                       
          distances "only to generate predicted picture signals in a                   
          bidirectional prediction mode, and not to select a                           
          prediction mode from among a multiple of available                           
          prediction modes" (Br8).  It is argued that because the                      
          weight "W" is described as "0 < W < 1" (col. 11, line 3) for                 
          the bidirectional predictive mode, which does not include                    

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