Appeal 2006-2961
Application 09/745,390
We will sustain the Examiner’s rejection of representative claim 1. In
our view, the scope and breadth of the term “self-powered” does not
preclude devices that are powered solely by batteries, such as the battery-
powered information entry part of Halperin. Moreover, we agree with the
Examiner that this teaching would have been reasonably combinable with
detachable keyboard of Park.
Park discloses a portable communications terminal with a main
housing 10 and a foldable, detachable keyboard 30 that communicate with
each other wirelessly (Park, col. 3, ll. 39-46, 57-67; col. 4, ll. 32-52; Fig. 3).
Halperin discloses a handset 10 with a detachable keypad 16 that wirelessly
communicates with the handset via RF transmitter E1. The keypad is
powered by battery B1 that is preferably a lithium, thin film battery
(Halperin, col. 2, ll. 35-42; 61-63; col. 4, ll. 13-18; Fig. 1).
That Halperin’s keypad uses a battery to generate power within the
keypad hardly means that the keypad is not “self-powered” giving the term
its broadest reasonable interpretation.2 As the Examiner indicates, a battery-
powered device is capable of operating independently of any other power
source. Notwithstanding the fact that a battery is used, electric power is
nonetheless generated within the device itself. That is, the battery is an
internal component of the device that generates power to operate the device.3
2 In fact, wireless keyboards with internal batteries have been touted as “self-
powered” keyboards. See, e.g., Palm Wireless Keyboard for Treo 650,
700p, 600, at
http://software.palminfocenter.com/productAccessories.asp?id=4311
(wireless keyboard featured as “self-powered” with an internal battery
lasting up to four months).
3 Even other forms of self-powered devices (e.g., devices generating power
via solar or mechanical means) are dependent on an “outside agency” to
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