Appeal No. 2006-1378
Application No. 09/845,852
threshold. Although the threshold is not set to any specific value, this is a matter of
breadth and not indefiniteness. Therefore, although the claims might be considered
broad, they are not indefinite. The breadth of the claims should be addressed by finding
prior art which requires the claims to be narrowed.
We now consider the rejection of claim 3 as being anticipated by the disclosure of
Palcic. Anticipation is established only when a single prior art reference discloses,
expressly or under the principles of inherency, each and every element of a claimed
invention as well as disclosing structure which is capable of performing the recited
functional limitations. RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Systems, Inc., 730 F.2d 1440,
1444, 221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir.); cert. dismissed, 468 U.S. 1228 (1984); W.L. Gore
and Associates, Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1554, 220 USPQ 303, 313 (Fed.
Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851 (1984). The examiner has indicated how the
invention of claim 3 is deemed to be fully met by the disclosure of Palcic [answer, page
4].
Appellant argues that Palcic teaches determining that some image data is less than
a threshold, but does not teach associating that data with particular photosensors in
multiple line arrays. Appellant argues that the portions of Palcic cited by the examiner
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