Appeal No. 1997-2964
Application No. 08/531,103
As we noted above, Ishida recognizes the problem of
nonlinear air flow in the early stages of throttle valve
rotation, and solves it in a manner different from that of the
appellant’s invention. In addition to describing his
invention, however, Ishida discusses the state of the prior
art, pointing out that it was known for the angle of the
closed throttle valve to be in a range of five to twenty
degrees (column 1, line 16 et seq.), which overlaps the range
of two to twelve degrees set forth in the appellant’s claims
1, 4 and 5. From our perspective, therefore, to the extent
that Lamm would not explicitly have taught one of ordinary
skill in the art to orient the throttle valve to the claimed
values, suggestion for doing so is provided by Ishida’s
discussion of what was conventional in the prior art at the
time of his invention.
The subject matter set forth in claims 2 and 6 clearly is
disclosed by Lamm. As for claims 3 and 7, Lamm indicates that
with increasing opening of the throttle valve, the effect of
the openings diminishes which, of course, is because the
effective area of the openings decreases as the throttle valve
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