Appeal No. 1997-1425
Application No. 08/520,228
transfer pressure regardless of the changes in various factors
(e.g., paper thickness, surface roughness, type of thermal
transfer recording material, etc.).”
Our reading of Oshida indicates that variable adjustment
of pressure will compensate for all types of variations in
paper, such as thickness, surface roughness, type of thermal
transfer recording material, etc. Thus, we conclude that
Oshida neither teaches thickness and/or roughness detectors,
nor are such detectors inherent therein. Oshida’s pressure
adjustment, based on angle detection, inherently compensates
for such variations as thickness, roughness, etc., but does
not detect these parameters per se.
Wong meets the claimed requirements of thickness
detection; this is admitted by Appellants at the bottom of
page 3 in their specification. However, and we agree,
Appellants argue the combination of references does not teach
both thickness and roughness detectors. Although Courtney
uses optical detectors to detect diffuse and specular
reflectivity, these detectors are used to discriminate between
paper and a transparency, not surface roughness (column 1,
lines 5-7). Jakeman does detect surface roughness, but this
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