Appeal 2007-1705
Application 10/508,629
no positive recitation of a regulator converting a power supply voltage in
independent claim 1 on appeal notwithstanding Appellants urging to that
effect in the Brief. The converting means clause merely includes a passively
recited regulator.
In reaching our decision to affirm the rejection, we agree with the
Examiner’s views that Kondo does teach this claimed feature expressed by
the Examiner in the Answer in the Statement of the Rejection beginning at
page 3 of the Answer along with the Examiner’s expanded Responsive
Arguments beginning at page 10 of the Answer. Various embodiments in
the early figures of Kondo teach a power supply control circuit 14, the
details of which are set forth in figure 8 which are discussed in pertinent part
at column 5, lines 53 through 62. The description of this figure makes clear
to the reader that the constant voltage circuit 142 performs a function of
converting power selected by the switching circuit 141 into a given or
constant voltage which is then supplied to various circuits such as those in
the figure 1 embodiment, for example, as illustrated to the left of figure 8.
Thus, the artisan would well appreciate that the function of the converting
means clause not only converts a voltage but it maintains a constant voltage
as well according to the constant voltage level determined by the passively
recited regulator. This is further explained by the Examiner at pages 11 and
12 of the Answer. To the extent a regulator/converting means is recited in
the claims as argued by Appellants at page 7 of the Brief, the Examiner
addresses these capabilities, and it is apparent to us that the artisan would
have appreciated that the regulator/converting means is met by the dual
functions of the constant voltage circuit 142 in figure 8 of Kondo.
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