Appeal No. 2003-0025
Application No. 09/019,871
prevent brush sound. Appellants’ representative further argued that the teaching of
Poet merely teaches the use of a constant force to the commutator without regard to
the force on the side of the brush housing and that the combination would not apply the
side force to reduce the brush sound. While we would tend to agree that the disclosure
of Poet does not disclose any concern for a lateral force being applied to force the side
of the brush to contact the holder, we note that in Figure 3, element Fx has both
longitudinal and lateral components which make up the force applied to the brush due
the angled portion which the biasing spring contacts. Therefore, there would have been
both longitudinal and lateral components of the forces in both Sugai and Poet. Hence,
we do not find appellants’ argument, that the examiner has merely picked from Poet the
use of a constant force and translated that teaching into use in the system of Sugai in
hindsight, persuasive. Appellants’ representative at oral hearing argued that the
teaching of a constant longitudinal component in Poet would have been a teaching
away from the combination with Sugai since Sugai is concerned with reducing the brush
noise/sound by the application of a lateral force to maintain the side of the brush in
contact with the holder. We disagree with appellants as discussed above since we find
that both Sugai and Poet teach both longitudinal and lateral components of the forces.
Appellants argue that the two references solve different problems and that
nowhere does Sugai suggest that he needs a different type of spring for applying a
constant pressure. (See brief at page 5.) While we agree with appellants that the two
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