Appeal No. 1999-0864 Page 13
Application No. 08/757,550
1991)). “The mere fact that the prior art may be modified in
the manner suggested by the Examiner does not make the
modification obvious unless the prior art suggested the
desirability of the modification.” Id. at 1266, 23 USPQ2d at
1784 (citing In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125,
1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984)).
Here, the examiner admits, “Yamanaka et al. ... do not
disclose that the image changing means is used for varying a
color-tone of the environmental image ....” (Examiner’s
Answer, ¶ 10.) Although Sawachika varies an image, it does
not vary the color-tone of an image. To the contrary, the
reference changes the brightness of an image. Specifically,
“the image viewed by the user will brighten in response to
bright outside ambient light, conversely, if a low level of
ambient light is present, the image will darken accordingly.”
Col. 5, ll. 35-38.
Because Yamanaka and Sawachika merely change the
brightness of an image, we are not persuaded that the
teachings from the prior art would appear to have suggested
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