Appeal No. 1999-1660
Application No. 08/444,242
activities other than those explicitly described. Further, in
Forbath, the user of the timer must consciously press the
switch to activate the timer, continue pressing the switch to
maintain the on-state of the timer, and consciously release
the switch to stop the timer at the end of the activity being
timed. For claims 40, 48, and 50, Forbath is diametrically
opposed to the claimed invention in that Forbath times an
activity during which a user is very much awake, whereas the
claims recite tracking the time during which the user is
asleep. Claims 33, 47, and 49, as well as claims 40, 48, and
50, recite that the user releases the switch when he falls
asleep, whereas Forbath requires the user to be awake to
release the switch. Thus, Forbath's disclosure again is
contrary to the claimed invention.
Further, the examiner states (Answer, page 4) that
the use of a timer to measure the time of a specific
event has no patentable significance with respect to
the event itself, unless there exists some physical
connection between the event environment and the
timer. In applicant's case, there exists no
connection or physical method step between the timer
and the sleep environment.... The terms "awake
time" "and sleep time" add nothing to the claims
other than the user's mental state.
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