Appeal No. 98-0984
Application 08/428,561
(which is itself optional) may be located either inside or
outside the housing (specification, page 16, line 20, to page
18, line 11).
Considering the totality of the record, we conclude
that placing a rectifier and capacitor either inside or
outside of the housing 48 of Voss would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill. Placement of the rectifier and
capacitor outside the housing was known in the prior art
(Ruff), and although Ruff does not disclose the advantage now
asserted by appellant, namely, that such placement would allow
easier access to the rectifier and condenser, this advantage
would be no more than the expected result of such placement,
and, along with other factors as discussed above, would have
to be weighed against the advantage (disclosed by Voss) which
would result from placing the components inside the housing.
In this regard, we note that an expected beneficial result is
evidence of obviousness of a claimed invention, just as an
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