Appeal No. 2004-0870 Page 17
Application No. 09/477,419
1. Claim Construction
Claim 16 recites in pertinent part the following limitations: "the minimized
representation of a window comprises a thumbnail view of the window." Giving the
representative claim its broadest, reasonable construction, the limitations require using
a thumbnail view for the minimized representation.
2. Obviousness Determination
As explained regarding claims 14, 17-22, 25-29, we have already concluded that
the combined teachings of Green and Williams would have suggested automatically
replacing the display of the window for the active task with a minimized representation
thereof. As aforementioned, the appellants admit that Hasegawa discloses the use of
thumbnail views. (Reply Br. at 3-4.) Hasegawa also discloses an advantage of using
thumbnails as minimized representations. To wit, "the thumbnail is obtained by
contacting actual image data with a specified magnification so that the operator can
immediately identify to which file the image data file corresponds to by checking the
contracted image." Col. 13, ll. 7-11. "In this case, even if the operator does not
remember a correct file name, he can quickly and easily select a desired image data file
using the thumbnail images as the key." Id. at ll. 21-23. Because thumbnails can
facilitate selection of files, we conclude that the combined teachings of the references
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