Appeal No. 2000-1961
Application 08/840,200
OPINION
Claim 16: Hill or Hale or Arcella
Appellants present two basic arguments: (1) that each of
Hill, Hale, and Arcella obtains a baseline data set "off-line"
from the monitored system, instead of "on-line" as claimed; and
(2) that the three references employ a fixed baseline reference,
whereas appellants' method requires an evolving baseline.
The limitations at issue in claim 16 are "monitoring said
control mechanism, on-line, to detect a variable operating
characteristic of said control mechanism; determining, on-line, a
time-based baseline data set for said operating characteristic
representative of a normal sequence of on-line operations of said
control mechanism."
Claim 16 requires determining baseline data "on-line," which
is defined in the specification as follows (spec. at 11,
lines 4-7): "As used herein, the term 'on-line' is intended to
identify operation of the monitored device within its associated
system while performing or attempting to perform intended fluid
control or processing functions within the system." It is this
definition that is controlling in the patentability
determinations, not the other definition provided by the examiner
(EA22). Nevertheless, the rejections are consistent with the
definition in the specification.
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