Appeal No. 1999-0608 Page 10
Application No. 08/571,471
We find the combined teachings of appellant's APA and
Dan'hata sufficient, even without the teachings of Matsumoto,
to have suggested modification of the APA retainer by
replacing the polyamideimide resin with the PTFE-polyimide-
lubricant resin mixture having a porosity of 10 to 20% as
taught by Dan'hata to obtain a sliding material having
desirable wear resistance, friction properties and oil holding
capacity. Further, we consider the inclusion of 20 to 40%
polyimide resin in the retainer material sufficient to meet
the limitation in claim 1 that the retainer be a
"substantially polyimide" member, given our interpretation of
"substantially polyimide" as requiring a retainer formed from
a material containing polyimide resin.
Appellant's argument on page 5 of the brief that "[t]here
is no teaching, suggestion, or disclosure in any of the art of
record that sintering of a polyimide resin powder formed body
is even possible" cannot be an argument that sintering of
polymer resins such as polyamideimides and polyimides is not
known in the art, as appellant's own specification (page 2)
indicates that NTN Corporation proposed use of a sintered
polyamideimide resin (Moriguchi translation, page 7) as a
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