Appeal No. 2006-1373
Application No. 09/814,054
provided by only two flashing light dots or markings that are presented on
the vehicle display (eg. Windshield).
… Still further, the present invention NEVER provides the driver with an
“entire travel route” to be followed. Instead, it continuously displays only
two angularly displaced dots or markings to show the direction to be
followed to reach the destination.
In order for us to decide the question of obviousness, “[t]he first inquiry must be
into exactly what the claims define.” In re Wilder, 429 F.2d 447, 450, 166 USPQ 545, 548
(CCPA 1970). “Analysis begins with a key legal question-- what is the invention claimed
?”...Claim interpretation...will normally control the remainder of the decisional process.”
Panduit Corp. v. Dennison Mfg., 810 F.2d 1561, 1567-68, 1 USPQ2d 1593, 1597 (Fed.
Cir. 1987), Cert denied, 481 U.S. 1052 (1987).
We note that independent claim 51 reads in part as follows:
display means energized by said digital detecting means and responsive to a
driver chosen destination to continually display only a pair of uncluttered
markings corresponding to the changeable vehicle location and that of the
fixed destination location, said display being free of any routing path
interconnecting the two markings,
Appellant’s specification indicates that only the two markings corresponding to the
changing vehicle location and the fixed destination are displayed on the display
means. Particularly, at page 4, line 30 to page 5, line 22, Appellant’s specification
states that:
The receiver screen 11 may display a map of the area, zone, or other
region being traveled by the vehicle, with the X-Y coordinated [sic] of the
dots 14 and 15 being located on such map at the correct street or road
locations. However, according to the invention, such map display is
unnecessary, since the operator of the vehicle need only note the relative
positions of the two flashing light dots 14 and 15 on the screen 11 and
control the vehicle direction in order to bring about convergence of the two
dots 14 and 15 on the screen toward each other.
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