Appeal No. 95-2990
Application 08/147,907
Therefore, we will not sustain the rejection of
Claims 22 and 23.
Claim 24
Claim 24 covers a music teaching system in which a
computer screen displays a sequence of colors that match
color-coded handbells. The claim stands rejected under 35
U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Sasaki in view of
either Chute or admitted prior art.
According to the examiner, it should be readily
apparent to one skilled in the art that Sasaki can be adapted
to be used with hand bells. Examiner’s Answer at 6.
Appellants argue that Sasaki’s apparatus plays the note
displayed and does not teach displaying an indicium to elicit
a note from an instrument player. Appeal Brief at 15. The
examiner responds by pointing to Sasaki’s Background section.
Examiner’s Answer at 10. We agree with appellants.
Sasaki’s Background describes a prior method for
learning music in which a music tune was reproduced using
musical instruments. Sasaki says that such methods had
difficulties that are overcome by Sasaki’s method in which the
music is reproduced not by instruments but by a computer. The
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