Ex Parte Beretta et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardNov 29, 2012

11058800 (P.T.A.B. Nov. 29, 2012)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 11/058,800 02/16/2005 Franco Enrico Beretta 6275-213 7488 24112 7590 11/29/2012 COATS & BENNETT, PLLC 1400 Crescent Green, Suite 300 Cary, NC 27518 EXAMINER SUTHERS, DOUGLAS JOHN ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2654 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 11/29/2012 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE _____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD _____________ Ex parte FRANCO ENRICO BERETTA, PAOLO GONELLA PACCHIOTTI, and ANGELO NAGARI _____________ Appeal 2010-007601 Application 11/058,800 Technology Center 2600 ______________ Before ERIC B. CHEN, BRYAN F. MOORE, and TREVOR M. JEFFERSON, Administrative Patent Judges. MOORE, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appeal 2010-007601 Application 11/058,800 2 This is a decision on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) of the Examiner’s Final Rejection of claims 3-14, which constitute all the claims pending in this application. App. Br. 1. Claims 1 and 2 are cancelled. Id. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We AFFIRM the Examiner’s rejection of these claims. INVENTION The invention is directed to transducers for converting sound, vibration and like signals to electrical signals for transmission, reproduction, recording or analysis, such as for microphones, pickups, and other audio transducers. See Spec. [0001]. Claim 3 is representative of the invention and is reproduced below: 3. A digital microphone device for outputting a digital audio signal to a digital signal processing system, and comprising: an acoustic transducer for providing a first analog voltage signal representative of an acoustic signal; and an integrated circuit comprising an input multiplexer having a first analog input coupled to an output of said acoustic transducer, and at least one second analog input to be coupled to an output of a remote external analog microphone providing a second analog voltage signal, the remote external analog microphone being external the digital microphone device, a variable gain analog signal pre-amplifier coupled to an output of said input multiplexer, a supply voltage input pad for receiving a supply voltage, a clock input pad for receiving a clock signal, and a clock detection circuit for detecting the clock signal, and in response to the detected clock signal, providing the Appeal 2010-007601 Application 11/058,800 3 supply voltage to said input multiplexer and to said variable gain analog signal pre-amplifier. REFERENCES Gulick US 5,818,948 Oct. 6, 1998 Deruginsky US 2003/0223592 A1 Dec. 4, 2003 REJECTIONS AT ISSUE Claims 3-14 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over the combination of Deruginsky and Gulick. Ans. 3-10. ISSUE Did the Examiner err in finding that Gulick renders obvious the following limitation recited in claim 3: “in response to the detected clock signal, providing the supply voltage to said input multiplexer and to said variable gain analog signal pre-amplifier?” ANALYSIS Appellants argue the above limitation of claim 3. Appellants do not make substantive additional arguments regarding claims 4-14 and therefore, they fall with claim 3. As the limitation listed above, Appellants argue that “[t]he clock detection circuit 5208 [in Gulick] turns off power to the microphone on command from the host, or upon detection of a lack of bus or clock activity [, however, in] . . .the Advisory Action, the Examiner [erred by] interpret[ing] that as also applying to turning power on.” App. Br. 8-9. We are not persuaded by this argument. Appeal 2010-007601 Application 11/058,800 4 The Examiner finds that starting from an off state, if the control unit 5208 saw input audio activity and attempted to power on, if no clock were present the unit would see the lack of clock activity, as before, and power down. Therefore in such a situation for the system to provide power, both input audio activity AND the clock must be present. Ans. 11. We find ample support for the Examiner’s finding. In other words, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that “in response” to at least the clock signal being present, power can be turned on because if there is no clock signal, power is prevented from being turned on. Thus, we agree with the Examiner that Gulick suggests the limitation at issue. DECISION The Examiner’s decision to reject claims 3-14 is affirmed. No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1). See 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1)(iv) (2011). AFFIRMED ELD