Appeal No. 2003-0204 Page 10
Application No. 09/096,123
controller to receive an output signal from the controller, the output device being
operative to communicate the step to be completed by the operator based on the output
signal, the output device being operative to communicate to the operator at least one of
an audible and a visual output of the instruction for packaging the identified part.
All the claims under appeal require an output device coupled to the controller to
be operative to communicate to the operator at least one of an audible and a visual
output of the packaging instruction step to be completed by the operator for packaging
the identified part. In our view, these limitations are not suggested by the applied prior
art. In that regard, while it may have been obvious at the time the invention was made
to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have provided DePoint's programmable
controller 48, such as a general purpose computer, with output devices such as a video
monitor and speakers, the applied prior art does not teach or suggest using any output
device of a controller or computer to provide at least one of an audible and a visual
output of at least one of the packaging instructions to be completed by the operator for
packaging the identified part. It is our opinion that the examiner has failed to provide
the required evidence that would have led one of ordinary skill in the art to have
modified DePoint to arrive at the claimed invention. Thus, we must conclude that the
examiner in the rejection before us in this appeal utilized hindsight knowledge derived
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