Appeal No. 1999-0218
Application 08/691,889
a new ground of rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph, pursuant to
37 CFR § 1.196(b).
A. The invention
The invention is a timepiece which gives a visual or
audible indication of the approximate time in conversational
terms that are either (a) never correct to the minute or (b)
correct to the minute only for multiples of a quarter-hour
(Spec. at 2, lines 30-34). For example, the timepiece may
give an indication that the time is "close to a quarter past
three" followed a short time later by an indication that the
time is "exactly a quarter past three" (id. at 6, ll. 17-22).
A visual display of the approximate time can be either
alphabetic or alphanumeric (id. at 5, ll. 15-22). The face 12
of the timepiece "is devoid of a minute hand or other
representation which would indicate more or less the exact
minute of the hour" (id. at 4, ll. 8-11). Although the face
may include a second hand (id. at 4,
ll. 11-16), in a preferred embodiment the face "is devoid of
hour, minute or second hands and, additionally, devoid of
indicia representing the seconds, minutes or hours" (id. at 4,
2
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