Appeal No. 1999-0954
Application 08/656,919
Kimberly Clark Corp., 713 F.2d 760, 772, 218 USPQ 781, 789
(Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1026 (1984). Our
review of claim 1 and the Masuda reference confirms the
appellants’ framing of the issue: if Masuda’s crankshaft 12
rotates in a clockwise direction in Figure 3, then the subject
matter recited in claim 1 reads on, and thus is anticipated
by, Masuda.
Masuda’s Figure 7, which shows the crankshaft 12 rotating
in a clockwise direction, assumes critical importance here
because it offers the only clue in the reference as to the
crankshaft’s rotational direction in Figure 3. Figures 3 and
7 are cross-sectional views taken along viewlines 3-3 and 7-7,
respectively, in Figure 4. The arrows on these viewlines
point in the same direction, thus indicating that the
crankshaft depictions in Figures 3 and 7 are from the same
directional perspective. It would seem to follow that since
the crankshaft rotates in a clockwise direction in Figure 7,
it also rotates in a clockwise direction in Figure 3.
The appellants submit (see pages 4 through 6 in the
brief), however, that the oil level representations L7, L2 and
L3 in Masuda’s Figure 7 and discrepancies between Figures 3
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