Appeal No. 2002-1866 Page 6
Application No. 09/346,814
Shisgal discloses a system for warning the driver of a vehicle of the presence of
obstacles behind the vehicle. Included in Shisgal is the teaching that power is supplied
to the warning system when the vehicle is placed in a reverse gear (column 6, lines 1-
5). However, it appears to us that such a teaching also is present in Wieder, wherein a
sensor checks to determine that the vehicle is moving in reverse on the basis of the
selected gear before it activates the warning system (column 3, lines 61-64). We
therefore agree with the examiner that it would have been obvious to operate the
system only when the vehicle is traveling in the reverse direction.2
With regard to claim 21, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we are not
persuaded by the examiner’s statement on page 5 of the Answer (quoted above) that it
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the Wieder system
to meet the terms of claim 21, which would require (1) establishing three control zones,
(2) specifying that the distances of the three control zones be those recited in the claim,
(3) limiting the speed of the vehicle in each of the three control zones to velocity values
assigned to each zone, and (4) relating the velocity values to one another in the manner
specified in the claim. To do so would, in our view, necessitate a reconstruction of such
magnitude as to essentially discard the Wieder system as disclosed in the patent.
2 Interestingly, review of the Shisgal patent brought to our attention the fact that Shisgal
establishes three warning zones based upon the proximity of the vehicle to the obstruction (column 3,
lines 17-22). However, Shisgal does not overcome the deficiencies in Wieder because it does not sense
the speed of the vehicle and does not automatically control the vehicle, but merely indicates to the driver
the zone through which the vehicle is backing by illuminating a light of a particular color, thus allowing the
driver to control the vehicle manually as necessary.
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