Appeal 2007-0002
Application 10/188,485
discloses disposing the sandwich contents on a surface of at least one of the layers
of bread (FF 10). Naramura acknowledges a market demand for heightened
productivity in the fast food market as a result of an increase in the number of
consumers and increasingly diversified tastes (FF 12). Naramura discloses that a
benefit of its sandwich preparation method is to heighten productivity by
eliminating idling time from waiting for completion of toasting or grilling (FF 13).
As such, Naramura discloses the known technique, useful in the fast food industry,
for separately grilling meat and toasting a bun using different cooking methods and
performing the cooking and toasting concurrently for the sake of efficiency and
productivity.
Naramura does not disclose that the sandwich contents include vegetables
(FF 14). Naramura does, however, teach that its apparatus can be used to make a
wide variety of sandwiches (FF 13). The increasingly diversified tastes of
consumers in the fast food industry, as acknowledged by Naramura (FF 12), would
have provided an incentive for one skilled in the art to have used Naramura’s
apparatus for making other types of sandwiches that include grilled vegetables,
such as the Philadelphia Cheesesteak Sandwich disclosed in the Recipe. In doing
so, it would have been obvious to grill the vegetables along with the meat to
prepare the sandwich contents to meet the market demand for variety and
heightened productivity. KSR, 127 S. Ct. at 1741, 82 USPQ2d at 1396 (“In many
fields it may be that there is little discussion of obvious techniques or
combinations, and it often may be the case that market demand, rather than
scientific literature, will drive design trends.”).
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