Appeal No. 2006-2648 Page 8
Application No. 09/788,387
viewing thumbnail images are sequentially displayed on the subwindows 102 to 113 in
time series." (Id. at ll. 40-44.)
"'Every patent application and reference relies to some extent upon knowledge of
persons skilled in the art to complement that [which is] disclosed. . . .'" In re Bode, 550
F.2d 656, 660, 193 USPQ 12, 16 (CCPA 1977) (quoting In re Wiggins, 488 F.2d 538,
543, 179 USPQ 421, 424 (CCPA 1973)). Those persons "must be presumed to know
something" about the art "apart from what the references disclose." In re Jacoby, 309
F.2d 513, 516, 135 USPQ 317, 319 (CCPA 1962). Here, we find that those skilled in
the art would have agreed with the examiner that displaying images sequentially in a
time series would have "serve[d] as an efficient way of maintaining and organizing
images." (Examiner's Answer at 4.) For example, such an arrangement would have
tracked the chronological order in which photographs were taken.
As aforementioned, "[i]n the first embodiment [of the reference], as shown in FIG.
4, thumbnail image are sequentially additionally displayed in the clockwise direction on
the subwindows at the peripheral portion of the screen every time a new image is
photographed. However, [Sato's] invention is not limited to this." (Col. 6, ll. 31-35.)
"For example, the latest image may be always displayed on a predetermined window
set as the initial position, and the thumbnail image previously displayed on the
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