Appeal No. 2004-1013
Application No. 09/985,553
appellants’ Figure 1 and appealed claim 1, the apparatus comprises
a reformer (element 20) for reforming the fuel and the exhaust gas
of the internal combustion engine (element 12) into a reforming gas
containing at least hydrogen which is used for reducing NOx
compounds contained in the exhaust gas, and a controller (element
40) programmed to control the amount of fuel (via control valve 30)
and the amount of exhaust gas (via control valve 28) introduced
into the reformer in accordance with (1) a demanded hydrogen amount
of the reformer and (2) an air/fuel ratio of the engine.
The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Oshima et al. (Oshima) 5,412,946 May 09, 1995
Peter-Hoblyn et al. (Hoblyn) 5,809,774 Sept. 22, 1998
Balko et al. (Balko) 6,176,078 Jan. 23, 2001
Schnaibel et al. (Schnaibel) 6,324,834 Dec. 4, 2001
Claims 1-8, 12 and 13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as being unpatentable over Balko in view of Oshima.
Claims 9 and 11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being over Balko in view of Oshima and further in view of Peter-
Hoblyn.
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