Appeal No. 1996-1088
Application 08/251,999
points out that Arai discloses “a switching regulator 16 of
the pulse width modulating type (PWM) for controlling dc power
supply in a stepless manner” (col. 4, lines 20-22), and that
appellants’ voltage varying means includes a pulse width
modulator (specification, page 14, lines 16-18). The examiner
argues that one of ordinary skill in the art would have been
motivated to combine the references because 1) Saito
generically discloses a controller, and one of ordinary skill
in the art would have selected Saito’s controller from among
the controllers known in the art, such as Arai’s controller,
and 2) use of Arai’s control of the electrolyzing voltage in
response to a flow rate measurement would have been an
improvement over Saito’s control scheme (answer, page 4). The
combined control system, the examiner argues (answer, page
12), would permit control which is responsive to either
detection of voltage drop as in Saito (col. 5, lines 5-68) or
flow rate and temperature variations as in Arai (col. 2,
lines 56-62).
In order for a prima facie case of obviousness to be
established, the teachings from the prior art itself must
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