Appeal No. 1997-0736
Application No. 08/384,916
We reverse the rejection of claims 1, 3, 7, and 8 under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Tanaka in view of
Ito.
The Tanaka patent simply reveals a two-cycle crankcase
compression internal combustion engine of the V-type (Fig. 1)
having exhaust ports 36 in cylinder banks 15, 16 (column 3,
lines 4 through 9).
The Ito document teaches a rotary type valve 54 journaled
in an auxiliary exhaust port of a three cylinder inline type
engine. However, the patentee (column 2, lines 63 through 66)
indicates that "it should be readily apparent to those skilled
in the art how the invention can be practiced in conjunction
with engines having different cylinder numbers and different
cylinder orientations." As shown in Fig. 4, a CPU controlled
stepping motor actuator element 57 operates to open and close
the exhaust control valves 54 for the respective three
cylinder bores 25.
As we see it, the collective teachings of Tanaka and Ito
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