Appeal No. 1998-2142 Page 11
Application No. 08/125,189
to generate heat. Consequently, Nakajima teaches away from
the examiner's proposed combination.
Relying on Yamamoto only to "show[] that it is well known
... to form a heat insulating substrate or heat resistive
resin 24 in the shape or form of an endless belt" (Examiner's
Answer at 9) and on Kogure only to "disclose[] that it is
notoriously old and well known in the prior art to provide the
fixing roller with a temperature sensing means 30 (Fig. 5) to
control the power supply 31 (Fig. 5) to the fixing roller ..."
(id. at 10), the examiner fails to allege, let alone show,
that either reference cures the deficiency of Nakajima and
Satomura. Because the examiner's proposed combination would
have rendered Nakajima's resistance heater layer inoperable
for its intended purpose, we are not persuaded that teachings
from the prior art would have suggested the limitations of "a
heating region formed by sandwiching a heating layer directly
between a pattern electrode layer and a conductive layer" or
"a heating region formed by sandwiching a heating layer
directly between a conductive layer and a pattern electrode
layer ...." Therefore, we reverse the rejection of claims 3-
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