Appeal No. 1997-2964
Application No. 08/531,103
arranged so as not to completely close the induction passage
(column 2, lines 5-9). Ishida teaches that the throttle valve
be oriented at less than 5 degrees to the airflow at idle,
whereupon the inventive structure provides optimum idle
airflow and also solves the problem of nonlinear air flow
during the initial portion of rotation of the valve (column 2,
line 9 et seq.).
It is axiomatic that the mere fact that the prior art
structure could be modified does not make such a modification
obvious unless the prior art suggests the desirability of
doing so. See In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125,
1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984). This is where the examiner’s rejection
is defective. The examiner has not explained exactly what
modification he would make to the Lamm structure, where such
is found in Ishida, and where one of ordinary skill in the art
would have found the suggestion to do so, being content merely
to point out that Ishida recognizes that airflow is nonlinear
during the initial opening from idle, from which he concludes
that incorporation of some unspecified teaching of Ishida
would be an improvement (Paper No. 7, page 3). However, we
are not persuaded by the examiner’s presentation, in view of
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