Appeal No. 97-1149
Application No. 08/237,537
1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993)), which is established when the
teachings of the prior art itself would appear to have suggested
the claimed subject matter to one of ordinary skill in the art
(see In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781, 783, 26 USPQ2d 1529, 1531 (Fed.
Cir. 1993)). If the examiner fails to establish a prima facie
case, the rejection is improper and will be overturned. See In
re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir.
1988).
The objective of the appellants’ invention is to provide
improved accuracy in metering the fuel to internal combustion
engines of the type which utilize fuel injectors supplied from a
fuel rail. As manifested in independent method claim 1, the
invention comprises the steps of
determining a first fuel injection pressure required to
keep fuel in the fuel rail liquid;
determining a second fuel injection pressure to keep
the fuel injectors operating in a low-sensitivity
region of their fuel flow curve; and
selecting the larger of the first and second fuel
injection pressures as the desired fuel injection
pressure to be maintained so as to provide liquid fuel
at a minimum absolute fuel injection pressure.
By way of understanding the substance of the claim language, the
appellants point out that problems arise if the fuel is not kept
at such pressure in the fuel rail as to maintain it in the liquid
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