Appeal No. 2000-0617
Application 08/706,025
be construed as an affirmative indication that the applicants’
claims are patentable over prior art. We address only the
positions and rationale as set forth by the examiner and on
which the examiner’s rejection of the claims on appeal is
based.
Nagata in view of Nakagawa
The applicant argues that Nagata affirmatively teaches
away from the proposed combination. (Brief at 5). We agree.
"A reference may be said to teach away when a person of
ordinary skill, upon reading the reference, . . . would be led
in a direction divergent from the path that was taken by the
applicant." In re Gurley, 27 F.3d 551, 553, 31 USPQ2d 1130,
1131-32 (Fed. Cir. 1994).
The purpose of Nagata is to eliminate the intermediate
bearing supporting the rotor. Nagata does this by replacing
the combination of a single ball pivot bearing at one end of
the rotor and a three ball pivot bearing located at the other
end of the rotor with a three ball pivot bearing at both ends
of the rotor. (Findings 13-15). Thus, Nagata teaches that a
three ball pivot bearing on both ends of the rotor are
necessary in order to eliminate the intermediate bearing. In
contrast, the claimed invention recites that the rotor is
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