Appeal No. 1997-3089 Page 8
Application No. 08/577,839
Allegre, alone. Allegre would appear to meet the limitations
of broad independent claim 3. Allegre discloses an electric
motor and a means for generating a magnetic flux. The means
for generating the flux clearly rotates and interacts with a
component, e.g., the ring of the stator magnetic circuit.
Vibration is induced in that component. See column 2, lines
22-33, which described vibrations of the ring. Finally,
Allegre discloses a “means for reducing said vibration”
[Allegre’s damping winding], as broadly as that term is recited
in claim 3. To the extent that we may have applied the Allegre
reference in a manner somewhat differently than did the
examiner, this does not constitute a new ground of rejection.
In re Bush, 296 F.2d 491, 496, 131 USPQ 263, 267 (CCPA 1961);
In re Halley, 296 F.2d 774, 778, 132 USPQ 16, 20 (CCPA 1961).
We are not prepared, however, to interpret dependent
claims 4, 11 and 14 so broadly as claim 3. Because we have no
teaching by Allegre or any evidence presented by the examiner
that the damping winding of Allegre operates by “utilizing
Lentz’s Law to reduce flux changes which reach said component”
[claim 4]; that the motor of Allegre may operate with a DC
current causing the rotor to rotate [claim 11]; or that the
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