Appeal No. 1997-3312
Application No. 08/183,787
means as required by appealed Claim 9. On the other hand,
appellants point out in their brief at page 7 that the
Kinoshita reference only describes a magnet having a circular
ring shape and thus Kinoshita's magnetic field generating
means does not provide for at least two permanent magnets
located outside Kinoshita's process chamber. More
importantly, Kinoshita does not disclose a magnetic field
generating means having two permanent magnets positioned
oppositely for the function of sandwiching the space between
the upper and lower electrodes for the purpose of generating a
horizontal magnetic field which extends through the space
between the electrodes. Thus contrary to the examiner's
implicit factual findings regarding the disclosures in
Kinoshita, Kinoshita does not disclose a magnetic field
generating means as required by appealed Claim 9.
In his answer at page 5, the examiner argues that the
proper inquiry here is what the references, "taken
collectively," would have suggested to one of ordinary skill
in the art. However, even if we agreed with the examiner that
it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in
the art to modify the Kinoshita apparatus in the manner
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