Appeal No. 1996-3507
Application 08/041,209
coefficients. The examiner contends that this feature is
taught by Matsumoto, who "disclose[s] shock absorber control
by monitoring vehicle speed and vehicle height change" (Answer
at 3). Although Matsumoto's Figure 2 shows the system to be
responsive to a speed sensor 45, Matsumoto does not explain
what effect, if any, vehicle speed has on the control of the
damping force. As a result, Matsumoto would have provided no
motivation to make Ema's damping control circuitry responsive
to vehicle speed, let alone to make it select and maintain the
highest damping coefficients whenever (or even when) the
vehicle speed is substantially zero.
At page 7 of the Answer, the examiner also contends that
using a controller to control the suspension units and adjust
the
damping force for each unit is admitted by appellants to be
known in the art, citing the specification at "page 11, second
paragraph." Because that part of the specification concerns
appellants' invention, we assume the examiner meant to cite
page 1, second paragraph, which discusses the control system
described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-75007. The
Answer's reliance on this admitted prior art is improper,
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