Ex parte RENTON - Page 6




                 Appeal No. 1999-2290                                                                                     Page 6                        
                 Application No. 08/763,955                                                                                                             
                 and/or evidence.  Obviousness is then determined on the basis                                                                          
                 of the evidence as a whole.  See id.; In re Hedges, 783 F.2d                                                                           
                 1038, 1039, 228 USPQ 685, 686 (Fed. Cir. 1986); In re                                                                                  
                 Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1472, 223 USPQ 785, 788 (Fed. Cir.                                                                            
                 1984); and In re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048, 1052, 189 USPQ 143,                                                                          
                 147 (CCPA 1976).                                                                                                                       
                          The examiner's position (answer, pages  3 and 4) is that            2                                                         
                 Kamiyama:                                                                                                                              
                          teaches all features claimed except for using a disc                                                                          
                          in lieu of hands.  The use of disc in lieu of hands                                                                           
                          is well known in the art and in fact two subclasses                                                                           
                          are dedicated to these.  Thus [i]t would have been                                                                            
                          obvious to adapt KAMIYAMA ET AL to include discs in                                                                           
                          lieu of hands in order to take advantage of this                                                                              
                          technology.  Further to add "second disk" i.e. a                                                                              
                          disk with hand painted on it which displays seconds,                                                                          
                          to the disks of Kamiyama as modified above would be                                                                           
                          obvious.  Thus each second disk would rotate as claimed.                                                                      
                          Appellant asserts (brief, page 6) that Kamiyama lacks                                                                         
                 more than just using a disc in lieu of hands.  Kamiyama                                                                                









                          2    The pages of the examiner's answer are unnumbered.  We have numbered                                                     
                 the pages starting with one representing the cover page.                                                                               







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