Appeal No. 2004-2307
Application No. 09/331,756
displayed portions of the broadcast signals; i.e., within the vertical blanking interval
(VBI) that is specific to Nemirofsky’s analog environment. (Id.) The examiner
underscores, later in the Answer, that the teaching of encoding control data in the VBI is
deemed to correspond to the claimed generation and transmission of command codes
within non-displayed portions of broadcast television signals. (Id. at 12.)
Nemirofsky describes two embodiments of the invention. In the analog (or “first”)
embodiment, video signals are transmitted in analog form. Col. 6, l. 8 et seq. In the
analog embodiment, control data may be encoded in a vertical blanking interval in the
analog video signal. Alternatively, the control data may be encoded into a separate
data sub-carrier signal. Col. 6, ll. 31-35.
In the digital embodiment, video data are compressed and transmitted in digital
source channels. Col. 6, l. 52 et seq. Control data are carried on a digital control data
channel. Col. 6, ll. 52-59; col. 7, ll. 31-37.
Anticipation requires the presence in a single prior art reference disclosure of
each and every element of the claimed invention, arranged as in the claim. Lindemann
Maschinenfabrik GmbH v. American Hoist & Derrick Co., 730 F.2d 1452, 1458, 221
USPQ 481, 485 (Fed. Cir. 1984). The rejection over Nemirofsky, however, reads the
claimed elements on two distinct embodiments described in the reference. The
rejection combines the teaching of a digital data communication link in Nemirofsky’s
digital embodiment with the teaching of transmitting command codes within non-
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