Appeal No. 97-3467
Application 08/279,748
depending on the angular position of the reflecting polygon
mirror 46. In that illustration, the reference point of o is
where o equals zero. But when the mirror moves to another
position as indicated in dashed lines, evidently o takes on a
certain value.
As defined in claim 1, o is the angle between a line normal to
the reflecting surface and a line which bisects the angle
between the incident beam and the optical axis of the optical
scanning system, i.e. line O in Figure 26. It changes as the
position of the reflecting mirror changes. The examiner,
however, erroneously
finds (answer at 4) that "the law of reflection provides for the
normal to the surface and the bisector to be coincident." On
that erroneous basis, the examiner concludes that o is zero in
Morimoto. It is apparent that the examiner is referring to a
different
bisector, namely, the bisector of the angle formed by the
incident beam and the reflected beam, rather than the bisector
called for by the appellant’s claim. Based on the examiner’s
reasoning, the angle o would always be zero, since the normal
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Last modified: November 3, 2007