Appeal No. 97-1841
Application 08/315,052
of a lamp and an optical element placed behind the lamp to
reflect light toward the liquid crystal display.
Claim 1, reproduced below, is the subject matter on appeal.
1. An apparatus having a lamp side and a back side
comprising:
a lamp disposed near the lamp side and an optical element
disposed between the lamp and the back side; and,
the optical element having a [sic] element lamp side and an
element back side with reflective coatings on the element back
side and partially on the element lamp side and the optic [sic,
optical] element having a light transmissive characteristic, the
element lamp side further having an elevated region with no
reflective coatings thereon such that a light channeling path is
present which tends to direct light through the element lamp side
where said light is reflected off the element back side and exits
through the element lamp side.
The references of record relied upon by the examiner as
evidence of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103 are:
Palmquist 2,379,741 July 3, 1945
Meijer 4,215,501 Aug. 5, 1980
The examiner has rejected claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Palmquist in view of Meijer. The examiner
explains the rejection thusly:
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Palmquist in view
of Meijer.
Palmquist discloses an illuminated apparatus
inherently having a lamp side and a back side
comprising an optical element (fig. 1) disposed
near the back side (10) comprising an element lamp
2
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