Appeal No. 2001-2573
Application No. 09/070,486
argues that since the claimed invention recites the combined use of
log-transformed histograms and non-log-transformed histograms, and
since the applied prior art teaches using only log-transformed
histograms or only non-log-transformed histograms, there is no
suggestion to combine the two techniques in the precise manner
recited in appellant’s claims [brief, pages 4-14].
The examiner responds that the motivation to combine the
references comes from Shimura’s teaching that using log-transformed
values provides higher quality output signals. The examiner also
responds that appellant cannot attack the references individually
when the rejection is based on a combination of the references
[answer, pages 8-12].
We will not sustain the examiner’s rejection of independent
claims 1, 9 and 14 for essentially the reasons argued by appellant
in the brief. Although Kobayashi and Shimura are each similar to
the claimed invention in the result they intend to achieve, each
reference achieves the result in a different manner, and there is
no suggestion within these references to combine them in the manner
required to meet the claimed invention. The claimed invention
requires that the lower limit value be calculated using the non-
log-transformed values while the upper limit value is calculated
using the log-transformed values. As noted above, Kobayashi
calculates both limits using non-log-transformed values while
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