Appeal No. 96-3304
Application 08/279,565
In either case, we do not agree. First, the movement of
Becker’s meter when inserting or removing it from its base is
not an input that varies in value over time. Second, there is
nothing in Wakatsuki which would have suggested to one of
ordinary skill in the art that Becker’s meter may be modified
such that the drums 21 are responsive to an input that varies
over time. In this regard, it reasonably appears that the
user number bar coded on the label 3 of Wakatsuki does not, in
normal use, vary over time. As such, we will not sustain the
examiner’s rejection of claim 1, or claims 2-9 and 11-13 which
depend therefrom, under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable
over Becker in view of Wakatsuki.
We turn next to claim 14. Claim 14 recites a utility
rate meter with a changeable readable indicia which represents
energy consumed and a display unit which displays alphanumeric
indicia in machine readable format.
The examiner is of the opinion that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the
invention to have provided the meter of Becker with a
changeable readable indicia representative of energy consumed
in view of the teachings of Wakatsuki. We do not agree. We
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007