Appeal No. 97-1017
Application No. 08/391,421
valve in the other. Mitobe does not disclose the first and
second tuned inlet sections upstream of the intake passage
that are required by this claim. Miyano discloses a single
outlet section (7) controlled by a throttle (12), and which
communicates with a port opening to a cylinder. Upstream of
the outlet section are a first intake passage (9) that is
tuned for low speed operation and a second intake passage (8)
that is tuned for high speed operation (column 2, lines 10-
47). A second throttle valve (13) controls the tuning by
opening or closing the high speed intake passage.
We agree with the examiner that it would have been
obvious to add to the Mitobe system, upstream of the second
set of fuel injectors, first and second inlet sections tuned
to provide tuning efficiency at a different engine running
condition, as well as a second throttle valve to control the
effective tuning, as required by claim 19. Explicit
suggestion for doing so is found in Miyano’s statement that
this enhances the charge efficiency (column 1, lines 5-16).
In our view, such a modification would have no detrimental
effect upon the operation of the Mitobe system, but would
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