SPEARS et al. V. HOLLAND et al. - Page 10





         Interference No. 104,681                                                 
         Spears v. Holland                                                        

                   a) reading substantially more vertical lines of                
              information from a motion picture film image than is                
              available on said output video signal;                              
                   b) performing vertical sample rate reduction                   
              operating on a plurality of vertical lines of video to              
              produce said output video signal with the correct                   
              number of video lines.                                              
              We can see no basis for regarding the above-identified claim        
         recitations as triggering the limiting construction rules of 35          
         U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph, and party Spears has offered us           
         none beyond that the features are steps in a method claim.               
         Accordingly, we reject party Spears' assertion that the above            
         quoted recitations are step-plus-function features subject to the        
         special limiting rules of construction under 35 U.S.C. § 112,            
         sixth paragraph. It is not necessary to determine and compare            
         the embodiments described in Spears' specification and disclosure        
         with those described in Holland's specification and disclosure.          
              Note further that Spears has not alleged that any word              
         appearing in claim 3 of Spears has a specially defined definition        
         according to Spears that is contrary to that as would be                 
         understood by one with ordinary skill in the art, or that any            
         word appearing in claim 21 of Holland has a specially defined            
         definition according to Holland that is contrary to that as would        
         be understood by one with ordinary skill in the art.                     



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