Appeal No. 2004-2277
Application No. 09/886,760
Although the Thomas patent does not include a detailed
description of any closed-loop control system that uses the
measured position data to correct misalignment, it expressly
indicates that the position measuring system disclosed therein
can be used for this purpose. Moreover, a person of ordinary
skill in the art would have readily appreciated this system to be
relevant to the admitted prior art wafer cassette handling
apparatus and method in view of (1) the disclosure by Thomas that
the system may be used in connection with rail transport,
material handling vehicles, robotic workstations and for docking
maneuvers, all of which are reasonably descriptive of the
admitted prior art wafer cassette handling apparatus and method,
and (2) the knowledge in the art that the admitted prior art
apparatus and method were subject to misalignment problems (see
the paragraph bridging pages 5 and 6 in the appellants’
specification).
The test for obviousness is not whether the features of a
secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure
of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention
must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references.
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