Appeal No. 1999-1084
Application No. 08/818,051
at a desired attitude to ensure safe maneuvering
of the aircraft.
As for the failsafe control system, it is
inherent that French 999,277 contains a failsafe
control system so that the system can operate as
designed. In other words, when it is in a
failsafe mode (see figure 2), there must be a
system to set the pistons in the failsafe mode.
In this day and age, computers are well known to
have been used to control many system[s].
Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art
would have used a failsafe control system on
Lippmeier et al.’s system to safely control the
flap[s].
In response to appellants’ argument that neither Lippmeier nor
the French patent disclose anything about failsafe actuators,
the examiner asserts (final rejection, page 4):
Although Lippmeier et al. is silent on
whether or not his actuator has a failsafe mode,
it is inherent that there is a motivation to
prevent the actuator from exceeding a safe
operating threshold; that is, Lippmeier et al.
would not want the actuators to cause failures
in the system. French discloses an actuator
which has a failsafe system. The failsafe
operation occurs as shown in figure 2 in which
the primary [actuator] is set between a fully
retracted and extended position.
Also (answer, page 4):
Failsafe is a broad term and the French
Reference ‘277 clearly meets this limitation
because the primary actuator is between the
fully extend[ed] and fully retracted position.
In addition, just because the French Reference
doesn’t use the term or word "failsafe" doesn’t
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