Ex Parte TERASAWA et al - Page 8


          Appeal No. 2003-0350                                                        
          Application 08/771,399                                                      



               Turning to a consideration of the Examiner’s obviousness               
          rejection of claims 27, 31, and 35-37 based on the combination of           
          Nishimura and Juen, we do not sustain this rejection as well.               
          For all of the reasons discussed previously, we find no                     
          indication from the Examiner as to how and in what manner                   
          Nishimura and Juen, given their differing problems and solutions,           
          might be combined to arrive at the claimed invention.  The mere             
          fact that the prior art may be modified in the manner suggested             
          by the Examiner does not make the modification obvious unless the           
          prior art suggested the desirability of the modification.  In re            
          Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1783-84 (Fed. Cir.             
          1992).                                                                      
               We also do not sustain the Examiner’s 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)               
          rejection of dependent claims 38 and 39 in which the Reitmeier              
          and Ozaki references are separately added to the combination of             
          Nishimura and Juen.  While Reitmeier and Ozaki provide teachings,           
          respectively, of oblique direction noise filtering (appealed                
          claim 38) and simultaneous readout of image signals (appealed               
          claim 39), there is nothing in either of these references that              
          would overcome the previously discussed deficiencies of Nishimura           
          and Juen.                                                                   



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