Appeal No. 2006-2177 Page 9
Application No. 10/127,152
"comprising," however, it does not preclude the scrolling area from also including
images.
b. Obviousness Determination
"The presence or absence of a motivation to combine references in an
obviousness determination is a pure question of fact." In re Gartside, 203 F.3d 1305,
1316, 53 USPQ2d 1769, 1776 (Fed. Cir. 2000) (citing In re Dembiczak, 175 F.3d 994,
1000, 50 USPQ2d 1614, 1617 (Fed. Cir. 1999)). A suggestion to combine teachings
from the prior art "may be found in explicit or implicit teachings within the references
themselves, from the ordinary knowledge of those skilled in the art, or from the nature of
the problem to be solved." WMS Gaming Inc. v. Int'l Game Tech., 184 F.3d 1339, 1355,
51 USPQ2d 1385, 1397 (Fed. Cir. 1999) (citing In re Rouffet, 149 F.3d 1350, 1355, 47
USPQ2d 1453, 1456 (Fed. Cir. 1998)).
Here, as explained regarding the first point of contention, we have found that
Siegel teaches a scrolling area that includes thumbnail images. As noted by the
appellants, "Each thumbnail is simply a miniature version of its corresponding image."
(App. Br. at 6.) Because the versions are miniatures, we find that it can be difficult to
discern what the full image represents from merely its associated thumbnail. For
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