Appeal No. 1997-2340 Page 8
Application No. 08/329,687
modified in the manner suggested by the Examiner does not make
the modification obvious unless the prior art suggested the
desirability of the modification.”
In re Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1783-84
(Fed. Cir. 1992) (citing In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221
USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984)). “It is impermissible to
use the claimed invention as an instruction manual or
‘template’ to piece together the teachings of the prior art so
that the claimed invention is rendered obvious.” Id. at 1266,
23 USPQ2d at 1784, (citing In re Gorman, 933 F.2d 982, 987, 18
USPQ2d 1885, 1888 (Fed. Cir. 1991)).
Here, the examiner admits that AAPA does not teach
detecting the self-turning-on of a switching element absent an
ON command. He specifically admits, "[t]he prior art figure
does not show a detect means for detecting the voltage or
current of the switching thyristors in order to send a firing
pulse to all of the switching elements to protect the
thyristor(s) which is(are) conductive." (Paper No. 16 at 3.)
The examiner fails to show that Takahashi and Mitsuoka remedy
the defect of AAPA.
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