Appeal No. 2001-2019
Application No. 08/996,567 Page 11
lights 310 at the same time, and to the same extent as does
appellants invention. As shown in appellants' figure 1, both the
audible alarms A and strobe alarms S are coupled across a pair of
power lines 18, 20. As set forth in appellants' specification
(page 5) "[w]hen there is no alarm condition, the network 16 may
be monitored by applying a reverse polarity DC voltage across the
network. . .. With an alarm condition, the system controller
would apply power across lines 18 and 20 with a positive polarity
to cause all alarms to provide their respective audible and
visual indications." Because the speakers 312 and the lamps 310
are in parallel with each other as are alarms A and S of
appellants, we find that the change of voltage in Berry, III will
result in the alarms being activated in the same fashion in
Berry, III as appellants' alarms A and S. Thus, because Berry,
III provides synchronization between the audible and visual
alarms (albeit, with no synchronization among the visual alarms)
we find that Berry, III discloses "synchronizing audible alarms
and visible strobes" as broadly recited in claim 1. Moreover, we
find that Berry, III discloses "changing the voltage on the power
lines to control timing of the audible alarms and visual strobes"
because Berry, III discloses activating the audible alarms and
visual alarms upon a change in voltage potential across the
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