Appeal No. 1998-2512 Page 6
Application No. 08/618,593
drum rotatable about a second axis parallel to and spaced from
the first axis, a spring member coiled on the storage drum
means and having a free end connected to the output drum, drive
means adjacent one side of the spring member for rotating the
output drum about the second axis, and control means laterally
aligned with said drive means.
Kuhar discloses a Venetian blind motor having a storage
drum means (20) and an output drum (10) that are rotatable on
first and second axes parallel to and spaced from one another,
and a spring member coiled on the storage drum means and
attached to the output drum. The control means (30) disclosed
by Kuhar is mounted coaxially with the storage drum means and
thus rotates about the same (the second) axis. Kuhar fails to
disclose or teach drive means for rotating the output drum,
much less a drive means adjacent one of the sides of the spring
member, as is required by the appellants’ claim 1.
The examiner has taken the position that it would have
been “an obvious matter of design choice” to one of ordinary
skill in the art to modify the Kuhar system so that it meets
the terms of the claim 1 et al. “based on factors such as
preference, design criteria, space optimization, and costs,
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