Ex Parte Georgiev - Page 13

               Appeal 2007-0337                                                                           
               Application 09/996,200                                                                     
                                                                                                         
               transformation.  The Examiner then concludes that it would have been                       
               obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to                
               incorporate such a teaching into Thomas’ method to determine the amount                    
               of rotation due to the transformation (Answer 12-13).                                      
                     Appellant argues that although Foley derives a rotation equation, the                
               prior art does not disclose extracting a rotation component of a distortion by             
               calculating an angle from the elements of a linear transform (Br. 15).  The                
               Examiner responds that the rotation angle θ in Foley “can be derived by                    
               simple mathematical manipulation” (Answer 19).                                             
                     We will not sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 6.  Although                   
               Foley discloses a method for deriving an equation for rotating points of an                
               image through an angle θ, the reference does not disclose calculating the                  
               angle from the elements of a linear transform matrix as claimed.  Rather,                  
               Foley states that positive angles of rotation are measured counterclockwise                
               from x towards y (Foley, Equations (5.6) through (5.9); Figs. 5.3-5.4).                    
                     Although the skilled artisan could rearrange Foley’s equations to                    
               solve for the rotation angle θ in terms of the other variables, the Examiner               
               has simply not articulated on this record – nor can we ascertain – how such                
               an angle calculation would be combinable with Thomas’ distortion                           
               component extraction method utilizing a matrix-based affine transformation                 
               and which also warps the image.  Merely because all claimed elements or                    
               steps appear in the prior art is not per se sufficient to establish that it would          
               have been obvious to combine those elements.  United States v. Adams, 383                  
               U.S. 39 (1966).  See also Smith Industries Medical Systems, Inc. v. Vital                  
               Signs, Inc., 183 F.3d 1347, 1356, 51 USPQ2d 1415, 1420 (Fed. Cir. 1999).                   



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