Appeal No. 2002-1044
Application No. 09/017,096
Turning to Des Jardins, we find that the buffer control enables an early packet
discard control arrangement in which, when the buffer instantaneously buffers a
selected number of cells, it disables the buffer from buffering cells which are related to
packets for which it did not begin receiving cells prior to enabling the early packet
discard control arrangement mechanism. See column 2, lines 54-60 of Des Jardins.
With reference to Figure 3, Des Jardins teaches that the control element 35 enables
cells received from the input communication links to be buffered into the buffer 32. If
the buffer 32 overflows, the control element 35 will disable the buffer 32 from buffering
cells and will allow those cells to be discarded. See Des Jardins, column 5, lines 60-65.
From our reading of Des Jardins as a whole, we find that Des Jardins teaches
that the data to be buffered is applied to the data lines of buffer 32. Control element 35
can discard this data by simply preventing the data that is present on the data lines in
each of the memory cells to be clocked into the data cells. Thus, in the Des Jardins
system, the ATM cells do arrive in the central memory cells since they are placed on
the data lines of each of the memory cells of buffer 32. This is in contrast to Appellants’
Figure 4 in which the data is prevented from arriving at the memory cells via gate 42.
Therefore, we fail to find that Des Jardins teaches the above recited limitations of
independent claims 10 and 20 and therefore we will not sustain the Examiner’s rejection
of claims 10, 11 and 20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Hatano in
view of Des Jardins.
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