Appeal No. 2003-0545 Page 6
Application No. 08/436,096
1984); and In re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048, 1052, 189 USPQ 143, 147
(CCPA 1976). The examiner's position (answer, page 4) is that
Snowden discloses all of the features claimed except for the
substrate being a light-conducting substrate. To overcome this
deficiency of Snowden, the examiner turns to Sakurai for a
teaching of the use of an optical fiber with an electrical
conductor to transmit both electrical energy and optical signals.
In the examiner's opinion, it would have been obvious to modify
Snowden's line by adopting the teaching of Sakurai to transmit
both electrical energy and optical signals.
Appellant asserts (brief, page 3) that the examiner fails to
provide motivation to combine the teachings of a superconducting
line of Snowden with the simple electrical cable of Sakurai. It
is further argued (brief, pages 4 and 5) that the references
teach away from the combination because Snowden teaches that the
superconducting materials need to be surrounded by materials
having a high degree of thermal and electrical conductivity with
an electrically conductive core, whereas appellant's invention
requires that the core has an outer stratum that is electrically
insulative.
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