Appeal No. 2003-0487
Application No. 09/158,925
[N]either Fig. 6 nor the rest of the Iwanaga reference teaches or suggests
a system where a phase detector (or phase detecting means) detects a
phase error “based on” or “existing in” a crosstalk-removed reading
sample value sequence, as required by independent claims 1, 4, 7, 10, or
13-14, respectively.
The examiner responds to this argument on page 5 of the answer stating that figure 6 of
Iwanaga teaches a crosstalk extracting circuit and:
Hence, by use of the cross talk extracting ability and provision thereof to
an error extracting circuitry, the operation of this circuit parallels that of
appellants’ figure 4. Therefore, the examiner concludes errors (phase)
either exists [sic, exist] or is [sic, are] present and modification of the
acknowledged prior art figure 1 would lead to the claimed invention.
Further, on page 6 of the answer the examiner argues:
With respect to the argument(s) presented that even if the above
teachings one would still not be able to modify the primary reference in
order to meet the claimed limitations, the examiner concludes that once
the problem – crosstalk is recognized by the secondary reference, the
positioning/placing of the appropriate element(s) to correct for such as
close as possible to the source so as to mitigate against any negative
impact on down stream circuits/processing is sufficient motivation to
modify the primary reference and meet the claimed limitations.
We are unclear as to whether the examiner, by analogizing Iwanaga’s figure 6
with appellants figure 4, is arguing that Iwanaga teaches the limitation of a phase
detector, the output of which is used to generate a clock, or that the combination of the
references teaches this limitation. Regardless, we do not find that Iwanaga teaches or
suggests a phase determination circuit (or means) that detects a phase error in a cross
talk removed signal, and that the phase error is used to generate a clock.3
3 We note that the claimed phase error circuit is shown in appellants’ figure 2.
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