Appeal No. 2000-0946 Page 3
Application No. 08/704,217
respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. For the reasons
which follow, we shall sustain both of the examiner’s rejections.
Pursuant to the claim groupings set forth on page 4 of appellant’s brief and in
accordance with 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7), we shall decide the appeal of rejections (1) and
(2) on the basis of representative claim 1, with claims 2-4 standing or falling therewith.
Representative claim 1 reads as follows:
1. An apparatus for determining a voltage of a power
source, said apparatus comprising:
a heating element;
a means for sensing a temperature of said heating
element; and
a controller means for allowing a portion of power
from said power source to said heating element, said
controller means through said means for sensing measuring
a rate of change in said temperature of said heating
element, said voltage being proportional to said rate of
change.
In rejecting claim 1 as being unpatentable over each of Tamura and Oishi, the
examiner finds that each of these patents discloses a heating element (resistive heating
element 2 of Tamura; heater 20 of Oishi), means for sensing the temperature of
the heating elements (resistance sensing means 8 of Tamura; the current detecting
circuit of Oishi) and a controller for determining the rate of change of temperature in the
heating elements via the temperature sensing means. According to the examiner,
[i]t should be noted that if the supply voltage increases or
decreases then a proportion would exist between the voltage
input and the rate of change detected. For instance, it is
obvious and inherent that if the voltage input increased then
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