Appeal No. 1998-3126 14
Application No. 08/479,569
U.S.C. § 103 is affirmed.
Turning next to claim 56, appellants assert (brief, page 9)
that:
None of the references suggests that a system of data
files, associated with the various user selectable
functions, should be used as a mechanism for storing
the digital encoded audible descriptions of those
functions.
The examiner's position (answer, page 12) is that "[i]t is
inherent in the Microsoft system that individual help modules are
stored in individual help files characterized by the ‘.HLP’
extension, e.g. EXCEL.HLP provides help for excel functions.
This was notoriously well known at the time of the invention."
Appellants respond (reply brief, page 3) by asserting that
"[t]he relevance of this file structure has never been
previously-raised in the prosecution of this application and,
more importantly, evidence of the file structure at the time of
the present invention has not been made part of the record."
We consider the examiner's assertion that "[t]his was
notoriously well known at the time of the invention" as the
taking of official notice by the examiner, and find this taking
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