Appeal No. 98-1196
Application 08/457,045
requiring "means disposed adjacent the periphery of said valve
member planar forwardly facing surface for centering said ball
on said surface." The examiner's reliance on Grund to
overcome this deficiency is not well founded.
Grund discloses a marking pen having a tip which includes
a circular opening 17, a ball 20, and a spring-biased thrust
bearing for urging the ball into the opening. The thrust
bearing contacts the ball through bearing balls 23 which
provide the sole rearward support for the ball (see Figure 2).
Grund teaches that "[b]y the provision of the roller thrust
bearing, great freedom of motion is permitted to the ball [20]
enabling the operator to write or draw with great facility"
(page 2, lines 8 through 12).
According to the examiner, it would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the ballpoint tip
disclosed by French Patent '045 with centering means in the
form of bearing balls such as those disclosed by Grund to gain
the writing/drawing facilitation benefit noted by Grund (see
page 3 in the answer). As indicated above, however, Grund's
bearing balls provide the sole rearward support for writing
ball 20. Thus, they do not center the ball on any surface
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