Appeal No. 96-2444
Application 08/360,194
switch and providing a switch which is actuated by both a
user's digit and closure of the case would have been obvious
to one of ordinary skill in the art has failed to establish a
prima facie case of obviousness. The single switch with
multiple functions appears in all claims and the single switch
actuable by the user's digit and the case appears in
claims 1-31. The rejection of claims 1-38 is reversed.
(4) Switching based on period of button depression
The examiner discusses how to integrate the functions of
normal, standby, and sleep modes into a single switch in the
Office action of Paper No. 4 (pages 3-4, para. 25). To the
best of our understanding, the examiner seems to say that it
would have been obvious to enter the sleep mode when the
switch is held down because that is what happens with case-
closed switches in the prior art, and to switch between normal
and standby modes depending on whether the system was
previously in the normal or standby mode. This discussion
does not clearly address switching between three functions
based on time. For example, although prior art case-closed
switches remain held down for a long time, this is a mere
incident of operation; presumably the switch triggers a sleep
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