Appeal No. 96-3092
Application 08/307,498
that it was known to align two optical fibers in an end to end
alignment, appellants argue that neither of these references
teaches aligning fibers on a rotatable spool [brief, pages 10-
13]. Appellants also argue that there is no suggestion within
the applied prior art that the teachings should be combined in
the manner proposed by the examiner.
A careful consideration of the teachings of Koht
reveals that Koht is only interested in coupling optical
fibers at bends of the fibers. Although D’Auria and Cannon
reveal that end to end coupling of fibers was known in the
art, we can find no basis for modifying Koht to achieve end to
end coupling. The examiner simply asserts that end to end
coupling would provide better coupling. Although the
“advantages” of end to end coupling of optical fibers was
known in the art, Koht neither desires such coupling nor
suggests any way in which a retractable connector having a
rotatable spool can be rotated to achieve such end to end
coupling. The only basis we can find for combining the
teachings of Koht with either D’Auria or Cannon is to attempt
to reconstruct in hindsight the invention claimed by
appellants. Such hindsight reconstruction of the prior art
13
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