Appeal 2007-2202
Application 10/608,169
Appellants’ arguments have not persuaded us of error in the Examiner’s
rejection. We find that the Examiner’s determination that Huber’s laser and
grading meets the claimed resonator to be reasonable. Neither of the independent
claims recite a color selection based upon changing a refractive index of a
resonator. While claim 1 is in means-plus-function format, the resonator limitation
is not in means-plus-function format. While Appellants’ Specification may
describe the resonator as being a device which can perform such functions, we do
not consider the claim to be limited to a device that performs such functions. Thus,
Appellants have not persuaded us of error in the Examiner’s finding that the laser
of Huber meets the claimed resonator.
Appellants further argue, on page 7 of the Brief:
[C]laims 1 and 7 recite that a temperature/frequency pair is retrieved from a
logic device, and the temperature of the resonator is adjusted to that
temperature in order to precisely control the frequency selected by the
photonic circuit. Huber refers to a laser, not a photonic switch, and hence
does not disclose the precise control of the present invention, but is only
concerned with maintaining the wavelength within a laser's gain bandwidth.
See Huber col. 1, lines 40-45. Moreover, Huber does not disclose either a
processor or a memory such as disclosed and claimed by the present
invention for the precise control of selected frequencies.
On page 8 of the Brief, Appellants argue that the Examiner’s finding that Huber
inherently uses logic is in error. Appellants reason that “the ‘simplest form’ of
logic put forth as an example in the Office Action does not include a logical
handling of light frequencies, but only a comparison to determine if a measured
temperature is equal to a set temperature.”
In response, the Examiner states that the claim does not recite a limitation
directed to a photonic switch. (Answer 9.) Further, the Examiner finds that the
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