Appeal No. 1998-2591 Page 9
Application No. 08/636,304
use the claimed invention as an instruction manual or
‘template’ to piece together the teachings of the prior art so
that the claimed invention is rendered obvious.” In re
Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1784 (Fed. Cir.
1992) (citing In re Gorman, 933 F.2d 982, 987, 18 USPQ2d 1885,
1888 (Fed. Cir. 1991)). “The mere fact that the prior art may
be modified in the manner suggested by the Examiner does not
make the modification obvious unless the prior art suggested
the desirability of the modification.” Id. at 1266, 23 USPQ2d
at 1783-84 (citing In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ
1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984)).
Here, Takayama teaches "a magnetic recording/reproducing
device in which four pieces of rotary heads ... disposed on a
drum make one rotations, and the digital video signals are
thereby azimuth-solid-recorded and reproduced." Col. 4, ll.
36-40. More specifically, Figure 3A of the reference shows
rotary heads HA, HB, HC, HD; Figure 3B shows rotary heads HA1,
HB1, HB3, and HB4. The rotary heads, however, do not have
track widths of varying widths. To the contrary, each Figure
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