Appeal No. 1998-0870
Application No. 08/325,015
not within the inventor’s endeavor, whether the reference is
reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the
inventor is involved. In re Clay, 966 F.2d 656, 659, 23
USPQ2d 1058, 1060 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
Here, we note that appellants’ field of endeavor is a
display device comprising a display screen having an
antistatic, light-absorbing coating containing electrically
conductive polypyrrole. See claim 1 on appeal. Further, we
note that appellants and Kinoshita are both concerned with the
problem of providing antistatic, electroconductive coatings.
Although Armes and Wessling do not relate to display screens,
we hold that they are reasonably pertinent to the problems
with which appellants and Kinoshita are concerned (i.e.,
antistatic and electro-conductive properties). Specifically,
Armes discloses at column 1, lines 11-14 as follows:
“Conductive polymers have been widely investigated due to
growing interest in their use in, e.g., anti-static coatings,
conductive paints, electromagnetic shielding, electrode
coatings and the like.” Since Armes relates to
electroconductive polymers, which are commonly used in
antistatic coatings, it would be reasonably pertinent to
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