Appeal No. 2001-2020
Application No. 09/271,232
Tognazzini 5,914,675 June 22, 1999
(filed May 23, 1996)
Bouliane 2,133,673 Apr. 6, 1996
(Canadian Patent Application)
Claims 1 through 3, 5, 6 and 8 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over Bouliane in view of Kojima and Tognazzini.
Reference is made to the brief (paper number 12) and the answer (paper number 13) for the
respective positions of the appellant and the examiner.
OPINION
We have carefully considered the entire record before us, and we will reverse the
obviousness rejection of claims 1 through 3, 5, 6 and 8.
The primary reference to Bouliane discloses a vehicle emergency signal transmission system
that is presumably connected to the vehicle’s electrical system for continuous operation. Appellant
and the examiner both agree that GPS position data is continuously provided by the vehicle
computer to the base computer (brief, page 6; answer, page 4). Notwithstanding the continuous
transmission of position data, the continuous transmission mode can be overridden with a call from
the base computer to the vehicle computer for current GPS data (page 11).
We agree with the examiner (answer, page 4), that “Kojima et al teach the conventionality of
reducing power consumption in a GPS receiver by ID activation only when it is necessary to
determine a position for transmission to the base station in a GPS-based wireless, emergency
location system (Figure 2).” On the other hand, we agree with appellant’s arguments (brief, pages 5
3
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