Appeal No. 1996-3152
Application No. 08/043,743
establish a prima facie case of obviousness because McCartney
fails to teach or suggest the step of preparing a tubular
member of a shape memory alloy with a reception space, wherein
the tubular member has a bent axis in its memorized shape as
called for in Claim 1.
The examiner acknowledges (answer, page 3) that McCartney
does not teach preparing the termination pins or tubular
members 13 and 14 with bent axes, but argues that the shape of
the axis
of the termination pin 13 or 14 before and after heating is a
matter of design choice because “such shape per se solves no
stated problem” (id. at 4).
We do not agree. We are informed by appellant’s
specification (page 2) that known methods of uniting optical
fibers in a bent condition are cumbersome and result in low
optical fiber filling density. Appellant’s specification also
informs us that the claimed invention provides an easier
method of uniting optical fibers with a high filling density
without damaging the optical fibers (see, for example, page 2,
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