Appeal No. 2006-0742 Page
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,013 7
2. Iwasaki
Iwasaki discloses a wireless control system for opening and closing a
motor-driven window blind (c. 1, ll. 61-66; Fig. 1). The system includes a hand-
held transmitter 12 which transmits an infrared signal comprising a command
signal for controlling rotation of a motor 10, which may be operably coupled for
rotating the slats of a window blind 15 (c. 2, ll. 48-60). An infrared responsive
receiver and drive unit 14 is operatively coupled with the motor 10 (c. 2, ll. 60-
64). The receiver and drive unit 14 contains a discriminator circuit 44 which
produces a forward or reverse rotation control signal in response to command
signals received from the transmitter 12 whereby the control signal is fed to a
drive circuit 46 coupled with the motor 10 (c. 3, l. 52 - c. 2, l. 8), which is battery
powered (Fig. 5). A protection circuit 48 is preferably interposed between the
discriminator circuit 44 and drive circuit 46 to prevent a rotation command signal
from continuing to rotate the motor 10 after the blind reaches a given limit of
rotation (c. 4, ll. 17-22).
C. The examiner's position
According to the examiner, Corazzini fails to disclose a control signal
generator for generating a control signal "in response to a wireless transmitted
user command signal" as required by claims 17 and 27, and therefore by their
respective dependent claims 21 and 30 (Answer, pp. 4, 6 and 7, original
emphasis). However, the examiner argues that "a wireless control unit is a well-
known art" as shown by Iwasaki's teaching of "a remote control of a blind using a
wireless hand-held transmitter 12" in Iwasaki Fig. 1, for example (Answer, p. 7).
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007