Ex Parte WELCH et al - Page 6




          Appeal No. 2001-0177                                                        
          Application 08/731,122                                                      

          teach how to implement the disclosed elements.  "In order to                
          render a claimed apparatus or method obvious, the prior art must            
          enable one skilled in the art to make and use the apparatus or              
          method."  Motorola, Inc. v. Interdigital Tech. Corp. ,                      
          121 F.3d 1461, 1471, 43 USPQ2d 1481, 1489 (Fed. Cir. 1997).  We             
          agree with appellants that Lemelson does not describe how the               
          various comparisons and calculations are performed and, absent              
          such a teaching, cannot make obvious the steps of representative            
          claim 5.  Lemelson does not describe working on pixels.  While              
          Lemelson contains general language about detecting changes which            
          occur in time, such as a shift in position of an object or                  
          changes in shape or color (col. 1, lines 5-17), we find no                  
          teaching or suggestion of any of the steps of generating a signal           
          representing the results of a color comparison, computing the               
          size and shape of an object by scanning for pixels having a                 
          predefined color, generating a signal representing the results of           
          a size and shape comparison, or determining the relative                    
          positions of the object within the video field when the pixels              
          match the predefined color, size, and shape.  We find no teaching           
          that the system in Lemelson automatically detects the position of           
          an object of predefined color, size, and shape by any method.               
          The examiner refers to column 4, lines 62-66, to a teaching of              
          obtaining coordinate locations (EA4).  However, that portion of             
          Lemelson is directed to the user positioning a cursor, crosshair            

                                        - 6 -                                         





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007