Appeal No. 97-2904
Application 08/565,457
(BPAI 1990) and cases cited therein.
In the present case, the examiner has taken the position
that the reduced negative pressure in Horikawa’s suction
chamber in the second operating mode described supra will
inherently reduce the frictional force between the sheet and
the perforated transport belt to permit relative movement
between the sheet and the belt. While a reduction in negative
pressure in the suction chamber is likely to result in a
reduction of the frictional force between the sheet and the
transport belt, the examiner has made no factual showing or
advanced no technical reasoning to establish that the
frictional force necessarily will be reduced to a sufficient
extent to allow relative movement between the sheet and the
transport belt. Certainly, Horikawa does not express any
desirability of permitting such a relative movement in the
second operating mode of the transport system. The possibility
or even the probability that such a condition will occur is
not enough. As stated in In re Oelrich, 666 F.2d 578, 581, 212
USPQ 323, 326 (CCPA 1981), inherency may not be established by
possibilities or probabilities.
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