Appeal No. 2003-1262
Application No. 09/620,679
the Examiner considers the feature of “maintaining a
substantially constant edge rate” to be inherent in Esch since
“the output signal at pad 241 in Figure 4 is maintained at a
constant edge by turning transistors 211-229" (answer, page 9).
After a review of Esch, we find that the Examiner’s
characterization of up/down counter 266 as “selection of an edge
rate” is without evidentiary support since the counter actually
adjusts the impedance of the PFET array to match to the external
resistor by counting up or down to turn resistors of the array on
or off (col. 9, lines 6-17). As pointed out by Appellant (oral
hearing & brief, page 8), although the impedance matching of Esch
may affect the edge rate, there is no teaching in Esch that, even
implicitly, relates to the selection of an edge rate based on the
recited variables. Therefore, the claimed steps of “selecting a
resistance of a voltage divider network” and “selecting an edge
rate of a driver coupled to the divider network,” as recited in
claim 8, would not have been prima facie anticipated by the
voltage divider and the up/down counter arrangement in Esch.
Accordingly, we do not sustain the 35 U.S.C. § 102 rejection of
claims 8-11, 15 and 16.
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