Appeal No. 2003-1203
Application 09/594,831
presuming skill on the part of this person. In re Sovish, 769 F.2d 738, 743, 226 USPQ 771, 774
(Fed. Cir. 1985).
The threshold issue with respect the grounds of rejection before us is whether Koike
would have placed one skilled in the art and one of ordinary skill in this art in possession of a
boost capacitor and “an associated MOS transistor” as required by appealed claims 11 and 12, on
which all of the other appealed claims depend. The examiner points to “for example, FIG. 3 and
4” of Koike in alleging that the reference discloses MOS boost capacitor 34 associated with MOS
transistor 38 as well as MOS transistor 36, because as shown in Koike FIG. 3, MOS transistor 38
has a “total of three electrodes” which fits a standard dictionary definition of a “transistor”2
(answer, pages 3, 7 and 8-9). Appellant submits that Koike discloses diodes 36 and 38, each of
which has two electrodes, pointing to col. 3, lines 3-21, thus falling into a standard dictionary
definition of a “diode,”3 and argues that “[t]he device of Koike is more consistent with [the
standard dictionary] definition of a diode than the [standard dictionary] definition [of ‘transistor’]
presented by the examiner” (brief, page 8).
We find that in the passage cited by appellant, Koike discloses that “diodes 36 and 38
have the same arrangement as that of conventional ones” and describes the two “diodes” with
respect to diode 36, from which it is apparent that each of the diodes has an “anode” and a
“cathode.” The relationship of the diodes and the anode and cathode regions thereof in the
disclosed “self-substrate-bias circuit device shown in FIG. 3” as well as another embodiment
shown in FIG. 4, is also described (e.g., col. 3, lines 22-48, and col. 4, lines 25-49).
Furthermore, we find that one skilled in the art and one of ordinary skill in the art reading FIGs.
3 and 4 even without benefit of the disclosure of Koike would have readily recognized that MOS
elements 36 and 38 are wired as diodes.
2 In addition to the standard dictionary cited by the examiner (answer, page 7), we find
essentially the same general definition for “transistor,” which includes “contacts,” along with
definitions involving different types of “transistor,” e.g., “metal oxide semiconductor field-effect
transistor,” in McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms 1250, 2056 (Sybil P.
Parker, ed., New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1994).
3 We find that the definition for “diode” provided in the standard dictionary definition as attached
to the brief, which includes “anode” and “cathode” electrodes, is essentially the same general
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