Appeal No. 2002-1993 Page 5
Application No. 09/336,648
Stadjuhar discloses a sign system comprising a plurality of modules 12 arranged
side-by-side, each module having a front face 30 behind which a flexible message web
is wound about rollers 32, 34. The message web 36 is constructed of a flexible plastic
material that forms an opaque background 41 for a series of translucent messages 43.
An exposed portion 42 of the web extends between rollers 32, 34 along the front face
30 with the exposed portion 42 thus carrying a selectively changeable message for
display through the front face 30. The message web 36 is reversibly advanced by
rotation of the rollers 32, 34. Each of the rollers is driven by a motor 52. As discussed
in column 5, lines 11-32, an electronic control 86 operates the drive motor in an
intermittent manner to display a selected message at the view area.
Like Sawyer, Stadjuhar discloses the use of a single motor to move messages
into and out of position to be displayed through a display area or window. While the
messages of Sawyer’s device are carried on a plurality of separately wound curtains,
the plurality of messages of each of Stadjuhar’s modules are carried on a single
message web. In both the Sawyer and Stadjuhar devices, the motor must successively
move a series of messages into and out of alignment with the viewing area in order to
position the desired message within the viewing area. We agree with appellants (brief,
page 8) that
[i]ntroducing the teachings of Stadjuhar into Sawyer would
have objectively consisted in multiplying the mechanism of
Sawyer in a side-by-side [manner] in order to obtain a full
message constituted by a plurality of side-by-side
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