Appeal No. 2001-2278
Application No. 09/304,267
detector as corresponding to load states of the engine and the
“counter values” which correspond to the parameter values and are
accumulated by the accumulator to arithmetically determine an
accumulated value. In essence, the appellant contends that by
setting counter values that correspond to the load parameters and
accumulating the counter values, the claimed invention affords
several advantages over, and presumably differs from, the prior
art system disclosed by Yamashita wherein, according to the
appellant, the detected values from the load detection means are
directly accumulated. The examiner responds that due to the
breadth of the appealed claims “[t]he term ’counter values’
embraces the intake air quantity values QA determined by
Yamashita” (answer, page 4).
While it may be true as urged by the appellant that
Yamashita’s parameter values, intake air quantities QA, are
accumulated by Yamashita’s accumulator to arithmetically
determine an accumulated value, QASUM or QACLO, it is not
apparent, nor has the appellant cogently explained, why these
parameter values QA, when accumulated by the accumulator to
arithmetically determine the accumulated value QASUM or QACLO,
are not “counter values” to the extent broadly required by claim
1. The claim simply does not differentiate the parameter values
and the counter values defined therein so as to distinguish over
the above noted disclosure by Yamashita. The breadth of claim 1
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