Appeal No. 1999-1061 Page 7
Application No. 08/568,337
filler, which results in high strength. The microballoons can be concentrated in specific
areas to lighten portions of the rod, and concentrations of resin produce portions of high
strength. See column 2, lines 36-63 and column 3, line 17 et seq. Sunaga does not teach
orienting the high strength fibers in any specific direction. It is the examiner’s view
that one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to orient the fibers in the
Sunaga rod to the manner specified in claim 10 “to provide the desired physical properties
such as the proper bending of the rod” (Answer, pages 3 and 4). That statement, in our
view, is merely an objective, rather than a cogent reason why the artisan would have found
suggestion to modify Sunaga. In any event, however, since Sunaga already incorporates a
scheme for controlling strength by concentrations of microballoons and resin, we fail to
appreciate why one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to modify the
Sunaga rod by orienting the woven fibers in a specific direction, much less the axial
direction, other than hindsight, especially when considering that Lindler does not utilize
woven fibers.
It is our conclusion that the combined teachings of Sunaga and Lindler fail to
establish a prima facie case of obviousness with regard to the subject matter recited in
claim 10, and we therefore will not sustain the rejection of claim 10 or, it follows, of claims
14-28, which depend therefrom.
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