Appeal No. 2000-0471
Application No. 08/871,442
count which is stored in memory will remain unchanged in the
instant invention. This is because once a majority value has
been reached, a decision may be made irrespective of the
subsequent bit repeats.
Appellants argue that, contrary to the examiner’s
contention, Brown does not state that the “J value...is one-
M
half of the repetition number (page 5 of principal brief).”
In fact, argue appellants, Brown “teaches away” from the
claimed invention because Brown indicates that the specific
value should be a “fairly high percentage” of M and the
majority value (just over one half) is not the same as a
“fairly high percentage.”
We disagree with appellants that Brown “teaches away”
from the instant invention. Brown actually states that “J is
M
usually chosen to be a fairly high percentage of M, depending
on the degree of detection confidence desired” (column 3,
lines 44-46, emphasis added). Thus, Brown actually teaches
that the value is determined by the acceptable degree of
confidence. Artisans would have recognized that while a high
degree of confidence would require a “fairly high percentage
of M,” in cases where a lower degree of confidence is
-5-
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