Court Opinion

ID: 9488675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:52:10.568668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:01.812982
License: Public Domain

NIES, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting-in-part.
I would reverse the Board’s decision that claim 4 is anticipated by Rockwell. Claim 4 requires “simultaneously monitoring the selected multiple connection points or wires for presence of the test signal.” I construe that claim language to mean that multiple points must be monitored for the test signal, a single test signal, at the same time — i.e., “simultaneously.” The Board concluded that Rockwell taught this claim element “[s]ince continuity testing requires that the input and output points be simultaneously selected for application of an input potential and an output ‘ground’ potential.” Under this construction, with which the majority apparently agrees, the word “simultaneously” is rendered superfluous. It is axiomatic that, in a continuity test of a wire, one must monitor the connection point at the same time the test signal is applied.
Regarding the construction of claim 4, the majority states:
The Board, on the other hand, construed element (b) to require the simultaneous monitoring of input and output points, but not necessarily the simultaneous monitoring of an input point and multiple output points. We conclude that the Board properly gave claim 4 as broad a reading as possible not inconsistent with the applicant’s disclosure.
While I agree with the majority’s restatement of the Board’s construction, that construction is inconsistent with plain language of the specification. Graves’ specification clearly states, in several different places, the “one-to-many” concept of applying a single test signal and simultaneously monitoring multiple points for the presence of the test signal. For example, the specification recites:
No prior test systems or methods utilyze [sic] the present invention’s technique for *1154testing the integrity of an electronic system’s interconnections versus selected multiple connection points or wires. The technique comprises applying a test signal sequencially [sic] while simultaneously monitoring all the selected multiple points for the presence of said test signal, thus indicating continuity to the single point under test.
******
The present invention tests for possible miswires, missing wires and shorts from each point on the interconnect simultaneously to selected multiple power, ground, processor control and other connection points or wires.
******
The present invention applies a test signal sequencially [sic] to single points on the interconnect of an electronic system unit under test while simultaneously monitoring the different selected multiple connection points or wires for the presence of said test signal. The presence of such signal indicates continuity between the (multiple point) connection point(s) or wire(s) to the single interconnect point under test.
This language squares with claim 4, which recites the steps of (1) eontrollably applying a test signal sequentially to each test point, and (2) simultaneously monitoring the selected multiple connections points for the presence of the test signal. As such, I can only conclude that both the Board and the majority have utterly failed to give claim 4 “as broad a reading as possible not inconsistent with the applicant’s disclosure.” Indeed, the majority’s claim interpretation is indisputably inconsistent with the unambiguous language of the specification.
The Rockwell reference does not anticipate claim 4 because it does not teach monitoring multiple points simultaneously. Rather, the Rockwell reference teaches checking continuity of a wire harness from a single input point to a single output point. Thus, while the Rockwell reference teaches monitoring multiple points, it teaches doing so one wire at a time, not testing multiple wires simultaneously.
Remarkably, the majority opts to overlook this fatal shortfall and concludes that “Rockwell meets all of the limitations” of claim 4. In support of its reasoning, the majority relies on a statement made by Graves in his request for reconsideration:
Even the applicant, in item 12 of his request for reconsideration of the Board’s 30 September 1994 decision, stated that one with knowledge of “basic electronics and simple logic” would understand the difference between the operation of the series circuit of Rockwell and the parallel circuit of the claimed invention. Thus, even under the dissent’s construction of claim 4, the Board correctly held that a skilled artisan could take Rockwell’s teachings in combination with his own knowledge and be in possession of the device of applicant’s claim 4.
While basic circuit knowledge encompasses the difference between a series circuit and a parallel circuit, the majority concludes that a skilled artisan (who undoubtedly would have that basic knowledge) would, after reading Rockwell, ipso facto be in possession of the claimed invention at the time the invention was made. Doing so is purely hindsight evaluation of the claims, and improperly minimizes Graves’ invention. I cannot subscribe to such action.