Appeal No. 2003-0289
Application No. 09/234,702 Page 10
possible transmission paths (col. 5, lines 19-20). In diversity,
the user may be serviced from multiple satellites redundantly to
increase the signal quality of reception by the user as decided
by the operations control center (OCC), not the user terminal
itself (col. 5, lines 49-55). Likewise, the gateway, without the
user terminal, may independently determine the radio path to be
used or interrupted (col. 6, lines 5-10).
Sherman specifically discloses that either the OCC or a
gateway actively determines the radio path to be used by the
mobile unit. Sherman was introduced by the examiner for the
purpose of introducing “earth stations” and their integral role
in the decision process (e.g. interrupting the radio path of the
satellite with the highest attenuation and accessing the other
satellite). This argument, however, is misplaced, as independent
claims 1 and 8 do not require that “one of at least two earth
stations providing said paths is operable to select which of said
radio paths between said user terminal and said at least two
satellites to interrupt” as recited in claims 3 and 10. Because
Chennakeshu discloses the use of two thresholds before
establishing communication with the second satellite, and does
not interrupt the radio path between the user terminal and the
satellite with the highest attenuation before accessing the next
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