Appeal No. 97-2968
Application 08/531,077
The Roller reference uses a regular cylindrical shape
which may allow axial slippage of the belts with
respect to the rollers, however, Moss discloses a
‘crowned’ roller shape that aids in the correct
positioning of the flat elongated belt-type material as
stated in column 4 line 15 through column 5 line 25.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was
made to modify the roller of Roller by shaping it in
the form of a ‘crowned roller’, as taught by Moss, in
order to insure proper guiding and centering of the
belt material around the belt take-up member. [Page 8.]
We will not support the examiner’s position. The mere fact
that the substitution of crowned rollers such as that taught by
Moss at 84 for the straight rollers 58 of Roller would result in
proper guiding and centering of the belt does not serve as a
proper motivation or suggestion to combine the teachings of these
references. Instead, it is the teachings of the prior art which
must provide the motivation or suggestion to combine the
references. See In re Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d
1780, 1783-84 (Fed. Cir. 1992). Here, we find no such
suggestion. While the examiner is correct in noting that Moss
utilizes crowned rollers 84 for correcting the position of the
belt-like material 70 (i.e., ribbon) as it passes through a high
speed band printer, we must point out that this correction is
done in the context of correcting misalignment of the ribbon due
to (1) forces caused by the proximity of the paper 41 as it
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