Appeal No. 2001-0622
Application No. 08/594,202
communication path...” The only reference alleged to teach this
feature is Tanaka. However, it is clear from a review of Tanaka
that that reference is only concerned with a single communication
path. The “mode” selection device in Tanaka is for selecting
between an analog and a digital mode.
The examiner’s response is that as “broadly claimed,” a
communication path does not necessarily refer to another station.
In the examiner’s words, “[i]t is considered in the Tanaka
reference that by changing the type of modulation used in the
communication, the components used in transmitting and receiving
this new change in modulation is changed and therefore
essentially changes the ‘path’ in which the communication takes
place” [answer-page 6].
We view the examiner’s interpretation as being unreasonable.
The instant claims require that a user initiate a communication
mode change “from a first communication path...to a second
communication path.” While a change from analog to digital modes
in Tanaka may be a “mode change,” it is clearly not a mode change
from a first communication path to a second communication path
and it is not reasonable to so interpret it.
Accordingly, since Tanaka is useless as a reference
suggesting a user initiated mode change from a first to a second
-4–
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