Appeal No. 1998-2864
Application No. 08/338,235
to be general knowledge to negate patentability, that knowledge
must be articulated and placed on the record. In re Sang-Su Lee,
277 F.3d 1338, 1345, 61 USPQ2d 1430, 1435 (Fed. Cir. 2002).
In the instant case, the examiner has articulated the knowledge
alleged to be “old in the art” by the examiner. That is, we view
Kobayashi as being very clear that the display may display what
can be considered an “alarm” and we agree that artisans know that
it was very common for devices to be supplied with more than one
alarm in order to alert a user to a condition which must be
attended to promptly. The buzzer, cited by the examiner, is such
an example. For example, if one is baking a cake, one may stand
in front of the oven and look through the door (as a “display”)
and being alert for an “alarm” condition whereby the cake may be
burning or over-baked. But cooking artisans, in this example,
know that one may also set a timer, which emits an audible alarm,
or buzzer, at a preset time, to alert the artisan that to leave
the cake in the oven any longer would invite the “alarm”
condition whereby the cake will be burned. That timer is but one
example of the use of a “means other than the display device for
providing an alarm.” We find that the use of an alternative
alarm means in addition to a display for alerting an operator to
a condition is so well known to artisans, and even to laymen,
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