Appeal No. 1998-1917
Application No. 08/766,984
well since the Teflon insulator layer used by Sato is a
polyethylene compound material as claimed.
We do not, however, sustain the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection
of dependent claim 5 which includes a requirement that the
material used for the insulating layer have a thermal
contraction rate “at least 10 times” that of the
superconducting wires. While we remain convinced of the
obviousness of the Examiner’s proposed combination of Kikuchi
and Sato, we find no basis for any suggestion to further
modify this existing combination so as to use an insulating
material of ten times thermal contraction rate as opposed to
the six times inherent thermal contraction rate of Teflon. We
find no evidence in the record that the skilled artisan would
be led to enhance the binding pressure on the superconducting
wires and former by substituting an insulating material with a
higher thermal contacting rate than the Teflon of the combined
structure since neither of the Kikuchi or Sato references has
recognized or taken advantage of the effect of thermal
contraction rates on binding pressure in the first instance.
Turning to a consideration of the Examiner’s obviousness
rejection of independent claim 7, we note that, while we found
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