Appeal No. 2005-0354
Application No. 09/399,412
velocity dependence of wheel to rail adhesion and use thereof to determine the
maximum amount of pressure to be applied to the brake cylinders to achieve stopping
of the train while preventing wheel slide with respect to the rails. (Brief at page 10.)
While we agree with appellant that the teachings of Cook do not relate to the freight
train consist with respect to rails and adhesion thereto, we do not fully agree with
appellant that these teachings would have provided no suggestions to those skilled in
the art of braking vehicles.
The examiner relies on the teachings of Fourie as teaching the use of pre-
selected information including velocity dependence of wheel to rail adhesion in
controlling deceleration. Appellant argues that it would not have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to combine the teachings of Fourie
into the teachings of Cook with respect to a mag-lev train that does not use wheels on
rails. We agree with this argument when viewed from the modification of Cook, but we
do not necessarily agree that the teachings of the two references are not combinable in
the aggregate. While the teachings of Fourie are directed to a freight train and
recognizes the wheel to rail adhesion characteristics, we find that this general teaching
does not teach or fairly suggest an implementation as recited in independent claim 1.
We find no teaching or suggestion in Fourie of the claimed “determining in such
computer a pressure that can be applied to brake cylinders which will maintain
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