Appeal No. 2001-1702
Application 09/186,429
of oil and other mineral resources at and beneath the sea bed
while operating under varying weather loads. Carlsen also
mentions that other operations at sea require a stable plat-
form, or platform having predictable and controllable movement
characteristics (e.g., like the prior art oil production opera-
tions discussed by appellants on pages 1-3 of their specifica-
tion). We also direct attention to the broad teachings found in
column 1, lines 36-59, of Carlsen and the fact that the reference
recognizes that the area and longitudinal positioning of the
stabilizer bodies must be selected in accordance with the opera-
tions that the vessel is to perform.
While appellants have urged (brief, page 9) that the
support structures (S) or columns (4) and (8) of the horizontal
stabilizers seen in Carlsen do not constitute vertical stabi-
lizers or, more appropriately, vertical stabilizer bodies, we
are of the view that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
readily understood that those support structures are in fact
passive stabilizer bodies, even though the reference does not
expressly describe them as such, because they will provide some
passive stabilizing force to the vessel tending to dampen both
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