Appeal No. 2004-1069 Page 11
Application No. 09/569,616
point-like light source 102 emits light that passes into a beam collector 126. The beam
collector 126 passes the light into light pipe 112. The light is redirected out of the light
pipe 112 into the light pipe 115. The light is then redirected out of the beam expanding
light pipe 115.
We agree with the appellants that claim 1 is not anticipated by Tai. In that
regard, there is no single embodiment disclosed by Tai that meets all the limitations of
claim 1. The closest embodiment disclosed by Tai to the subject matter recited in claim
1 is Figure 8 which includes elongated radiation sources (i.e., light pipes 111 and 112)
along two substantially nonparallel sides of a substantially flat light guide (i.e., light pipe
115). However, Tai's flat light guide (i.e., light pipe 115) has a thickness dimension
which is equal to the corresponding dimension of the emission surfaces 22 of the beam
expanding light pipes 111 and 112. This is done to avoid light leakage as light passes
between the beam expanding light pipes 111 and 112 and the beam expanding light
pipe 115. Accordingly, the limitation of claim 1 that "which means for coupling radiation
into the flat light guide have radiation output windows with tangential dimensions (E)
larger than a thickness dimension (D) of the flat light guide, which tangential dimensions
(E) are in a direction substantially orthogonal to a surface of the flat light guide" is not
met by Tai.
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