Appeal 2007-0953
Application 10/607,466
PRINCIPLES OF LAW
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. 1984); W.L. Gore and Associates, Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721
F.2d 1540, 1554, 220 USPQ 303, 313 (Fed. Cir. 1983).
To avoid anticipation, apparatus claims must be distinguished from
the prior art in terms of structure rather than function. In re Schreiber, 128
F.3d 1473, 1477-78, 44 USPQ2d 1429, 1431-32 (Fed. Cir. 1997).
ANALYSIS
At the outset, we note that the WDM structure of Fig. 3A of McGreer
is structurally similar to the disclosed WDM structure shown in Fig. 4 of the
present application. McGreer characterizes the waveguides 160 as “input
channel waveguides,” and waveguides 200 are characterized as “output
channel waveguides.” Moreover, McGreer refers to the disclosed structure
as having an “input side” and an “output side” (McGreer, col. 9, ll. 3-8).
Claim 10, however, requires disposing both (1) the input waveguide
containing the sub-waveguides, and (2) the output waveguides on both sides
of the substrate centering on the AWG. Certainly, McGreer, in Fig. 3A,
discloses multiple waveguides 160 and 200 with transition segments (i.e.,
sub-waveguides) on both sides of the substrate centering on the AWG as
claimed.
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