Appeal No. 95-1292
Application 07/911,471
for color television signals in the United States. See
e.g., Re-Examination of Technical Regulations, 48 Fed. Reg.
14399 n.7 (1983) ("The National Television Systems Committee
(NTSC) of the Electronics Industries Association (EIA)
prepared the standard specifications approved by the FCC,
December, 1953, for commercial color television
broadcasting."); see also "National Television System
Committee", McGraw-Hill Electronics Dictionary 356 (5th ed.
1994) (attached). On this basis, we find that a person
having ordinary skill in the art would have found it
necessary at the time of the invention to use an NTSC signal
for a television-based invention to have wide commercial
appeal in the United States (or Canada, Mexico, or Japan).
If anything, it would have been unusual not to have used the
standard.
L The level of skill in the art and secondary considerations
supporting patentability are not contested issues in the
present appeal.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
A. Claim interpretation
A All of the claims on appeal are written in either means-
plus-function (claims 1, 2, 4-7, and 15-19) or step-plus-
function (claims 8, 9, 11-14, 20, and 21) format.
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