Appeal No. 2001-1601
Application No. 08/404,406
mechanical steerable antenna is the equivalent of the multiple
directional antennas and can be substituted therefor." The
examiner (Answer, page 12) turns to Vasile for the particular
elements of such an electronically steerable antenna, such as the
claimed mixers, weight generator, and adder.
Appellants do not argue the combination of Freeburg and
Vasile. Appellants' sole argument regarding claims 23, 25, and
28 is (Brief, page 15) that Vasile fails to disclose the claimed
second processor for receiving the received signal from the adder
and providing a profile for each of the second antenna elements
for determining a suitable communication path between the base
station and the respective remote. However, the purpose of
Freeburg is to select the best communication path established
between two terminals (see the Abstract). Such a selection is
accomplished by a processor which compares and ranks the various
signal strengths. The substitution of a steerable antenna with
mixers, a weight generator, and an adder, for the multiple
directional antennas of Freeburg does not change Freeburg's goal
of selecting the best communication path. Therefore, the
combination would still include a processor for determining the
best path. However, as the skilled artisan would recognize, the
processor would have to be modified to compare the signals from
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