Appeal No. 96-3392
Application 08/121,512
the uncharged non-image portion of the drum. Kurokawa
discloses applying the bias application voltage to the
developer a predetermined time after starting rotation of the
latent image carrier and starting charging of the carrier
(figure 9) for the same purpose of eliminating deposition of
developer on the non-image area as appellants' invention. The
examiner found that the sole difference between Kurokawa and
the subject matter of claim 1 is that claim 1 recites a
one-component developer and Kurokawa discloses a two-component
developer. The examiner concluded that "it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a
one-component developer instead of a two-component developer
since the use of one-component developers is [sic, was]
extremely well known in the art and the applicant has not
disclosed that the use of such developers is critical to the
proper functioning of the invention" (FR4). We agree. Since
both one-component and two-component systems use bias
application to control deposition of toner, and since both
suffer from the same problem of excess toner being deposited
on the non-image portion of the drum, one of ordinary skill in
the image forming art would have been motivated to apply the
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