Appeal No. 1998-2899
Application No. 08/632,687
answer, pp. 3, 4. The examiner further describes the
circumferential grooves 26 in Figure 4 of Fellows as a means
extending substantially across a length of the cylinder for
connecting an interface of the cylinder and the printing
sleeve to a low pressure region. Id.
at 4. However, the examiner relies on Arkell as teaching
grooves 22 (Fig. 2) extending substantially across a length of
the cylinder for securing a printing member in position on a4
cylinder by means of a vacuum. Id. The examiner then
concludes that
[i]t would have been obvious . . . to utilize groove
configurations on the cylinder surface in Fellows
(4,030,415) extending substantially across a length
of the cylinder in a manner as claimed, especially
in view of the teaching of the same as disclosed by
Arkell (G.B. 1 401 695). The motivation would have
involved merely the choice of conventional groove
configurations so as obtain air evacuation and
printing member securement in an optimum manner.
4The “printing member” in Arkell is a printing plate, e.g., a
lithographic plate or an intermediate rubber plate or blanket used in offset
printing to transfer print from a lithographic plate to paper. See p. 1, ll.
9-20. Arkell does not teach or suggest a gapless tubular printing sleeve.
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