Appeal No. 96-1380
Application 08/219,189
empty the collected residual toner from Bisaiji's belt
cleaning unit 22:
Instead of the removed residual toner being
dumped into a container 22, where it must be
manually removed, it would appear as an obvious
expedient to the ordinary routineer to apply the
proper bias to blade 22b, transfer member 19 and
drum 9 in order that the residual toner
initially cleaned from the transfer member be
reattached to the transfer member and
subsequently transported to a single cleaning
station 10 by the photoconductive member 9.
Whether the transfer member is an intermediate
member, such as belt, or a direct transfer
member, such as a roll, is considered to be of
no patentable significance since the basic
teaching of Davidge, et al. would be applicable
in either case. [Answer at 4.]
We agree with appellant (Brief at 7) that in combining
the teachings of Davidge with Bisaiji in the foregoing manner,
the examiner is relying to an unacceptable extent on hindsight
gained from appellant's own disclosure. Compare In re
McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 1395, 170 USPQ 209, 212 (CCPA 1971)
("Any judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a
reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning, but so long as
it takes into account only knowledge which was within the
level of ordinary skill at the time the claimed invention was
made and does not include knowledge gleaned only from
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