Appeal No. 2002-2329 Page 4
Application No. 09/647,815
h)1 resuming normal operation of the internal combustion engine.
As explained on pages 9 and 10 of the specification and page 9 of the Brief, when the
need for desulfurization is determined, the engine is operated rich (81<1) and secondary
air is added upstream of the catalytic converter, which causes the mixture to become
lean (8>1) and has the effect of substantially raising the exhaust gas temperature.
When the exhaust gas temperature reaches a maximum allowable level, the secondary
air is discontinued, whereupon the fuel/air mixture is set to 82<1, with 82 then being
greater than 81.
The examiner has rejected this claim under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being obvious2 in
view of the combined teachings of Cullen and Takeshima. In arriving at this conclusion,
the examiner has found that all of the subject matter recited in the claim is disclosed by
Cullen except that Cullen fails to disclose 82 larger than 81 during the corresponding
step of the method (see column 1, lines 37-44). However, it is the examiner’s position
1These subparagraphs should be designated as a), b), c) and d). The same error appears in
claim 14.
2The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of the prior art would have suggested to
one of ordinary skill in the art. See, for example, In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871, 881
(CCPA 1981). In establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, it is incumbent upon the examiner to
provide a reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would have been led to modify a prior art reference or
to combine reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention. See Ex parte Clapp, 227 USPQ 972,
973 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1985). To this end, the requisite motivation must stem from some teaching,
suggestion or inference in the prior art as a whole or from the knowledge generally available to one of
ordinary skill in the art and not from the appellant's disclosure. See, for example, Uniroyal, Inc. v. Rudkin-
Wiley Corp., 837 F.2d 1044, 1052, 5 USPQ2d 1434, 1439 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 825 (1988).
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