The opinion in support of the decision being entered today was not written for publication and is not binding precedent of the Board.
Paper No. 15
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
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Ex parte MERWIN H. ALFERNESS, MARK D. AUBEL, and FREDERICK H. HATHAWAY
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Appeal No. 2002-1395
Application No. 08/789,702
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ON BRIEF
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Before BARRY, BLANKENSHIP, and SAADAT, Administrative Patent Judges.
BARRY, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
A patent examiner rejected claims 1-51. The appellants appeal therefrom under
35 U.S.C. § 134(a). We affirm-in-part.
BACKGROUND
The invention at issue on appeal provides hierarchy or modularity to a behavioral
description of an integrated circuit ("IC"). (Spec. at 1.) The design of an IC is
commonly specified at the register transfer level using a behavioral description. (Id.
at 2.) Employing hierarchial design techniques to describe the selection and
interconnection of an IC's logic or memory components is often desirable. Such design
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