Appeal No. 95-3185
Application 08/129,029
either source may be recorded first. One with ordinary skill
is presumed to have some basic skills and common sense.
Finally, the applicants argue that the examiner’s stated
rationale for combining the references, i.e., economic
incentive or business profits, is contrary to our view that
"it is not a requirement for obviousness that there must be an
economic incentive or commercial viability to a proposed
modification." The argument misses the point that no economic
or business incentive is necessary. The applicants had argued
that the examiner was incorrect in his view that there would
be an economic motivation for listening to the recorded music
to check for errors as it is being duplicated. We stated
(Decision at 8):
While it is true that real time monitoring by
listening may not keep up with high speed
duplication of data in compressed form, it is not a
requirement for obviousness that there must be an
economical incentive or commercial viability to a
proposed modification. The issue is obviousness
from a scientific or technical point of view to one
of ordinary skill in the art, not whether an idea
would make a profit from a business perspective.
Here, we agree with the examiner that it would have
been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art
to check for errors in recording by listening to the
recording, regardless of whether the data is
recorded in a compressed format.
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