Appeal 2007-0002
Application 10/188,485
the known cooking methods of Naramura by using Naramura’s apparatus to grill
vegetables to expand the variety of sandwich offerings, by cooking the bread with
impinging heated air for increased speed and improved taste and texture, as taught
by Smith, and by cooking the bread and sandwich contents concurrently and
simultaneously for improved efficiency of preparation and productivity, as taught
by Russell. As such, the method of claim 1 would have been obvious in view of
Naramura, Smith, and Russell.
Claims 3 and 8 further recite that the bread is slightly under baked prior to
toasting. Glaros discloses that partially-baked bread products were known in the
art at the time of the invention. In particular, Glaros discloses a partially-baked
bread product that is made by heating the dough in an impingement oven until
partially-baked and then immediately freezing the bread (FF 25). Glaros teaches
that this partially-baked bread product provides the benefit of allowing the retail
store to complete the baking in a short amount of time while still achieving the
aroma, texture and moistness of a freshly-baked bread product (FF 26, 27). It
would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the
invention to have used a partially-baked bread product, such as that described in
Glaros, in the assembly of Naramura to manufacture sandwiches, to achieve the
stated benefits of aroma, texture, and moistness, because this would make the
sandwich more appealing to customers. As such, we find that claims 3 and 8
would have been obvious in view of the combined teachings of Naramura, Smith,
Russell, and Glaros.
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