Appeal No. 97-1504
Application No. 08/400,190
a method in which scrolling is started by a short duration
activation of a multifunction switch and continues until
another short duration activation of that switch is made,
Wagai starts the scrolling by activating and holding the
multifunction switch in the activated position, and stops it
by releasing the switch.
The examiner deals with the above-noted insufficiency in
Wagai in three ways. First, the examiner asserts that the
claimed method would have been obvious “because Wagai et al.
et al. [sic] suggests manual, or sequential and automatic
free-running displaying of the messages, or both with the
activation of a switch” (Answer, page 4). However, the issue
is whether Wagai teaches the method of recited in the claims,
in which certain manners of operating a single switch result
in a particular modes of message display. The fact is that
while the methods of both the appellant’s invention and Wagai
utilize a single switch to initiate two different modes of
message display, they do not accomplish this by the same
steps. The second assertion by the examiner has to do with
switching “typically used in automatically programming VCR’s”
(Answer, page 4). Even if we were able to fully understand
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