Appeal No. 2004-2071
Application No. 09/893,109
person of ordinary skill in the art would have readily
appreciated such to be the case from the description in the
reference of the manner in which the elastic roller elastically
deforms on contact with the sprocket to cushion the engagement of
the rigid roller and the sprocket. The discovery of an optimum
value of a variable in a known process is normally obvious, with
exceptions to this general rule lying in cases where the
parameter optimized was not recognized to be result effective or
where the results of optimizing a variable which was known to be
result effective are unexpectedly good. In re Antonie, 559 F.2d
618, 620, 195 USPQ 6, 8-9 (CCPA 1977). Id. In the present case,
the fair teachings and suggestions of the Japanese reference
establish that the axial width and radial thickness of the
elastic roller disclosed therein are art-recognized result
effective variables with respect to durability and noise
suppression, respectively. Moreover, the record does not contain
any evidence that the particular elastic roller width and
thickness ratios set forth in claim 1 afford unexpectedly good
results. To the contrary, the appellants’ specification (see the
paragraph bridging pages 11 and 12) discusses the noise
suppression and durability test results shown in Figures 3
through 6 of the application in terms of achieving a sufficient
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