Appeal No. 2005-1942 Page 8
Application No. 10/173,938
disclosed that jumpers, or relatively short pieces of fiber can
be used to interconnect the spools through adapters external to
the packages (col. 2, lines 19-21). In the first embodiment,
shown in figures 3-5 (col. 2, lines 39 and 40) two DCF spools are
disclosed to be connected by jumper 414 (bridging fiber) (col. 3,
lines 42-44). In the second embodiment of figures 6 and 7,(col.
2, lines 42-44) it is disclosed (figure 7) that there are three
spools and plural jumpers (col. 4, lines 4-10). In the third
embodiment of figure 8 (col. 2, lines 45-47) a jumper, unlabeled,
connects the two spools of the sealed housing.
We therefore find that in each of the three embodiments of
Keys, plural spools of DCF are connected by bridging fibers
connected to adapters external to the packages which house the
DCF spools.
From the disclosure of Keys that bridging fibers are placed
externally to the packages housing the DCF, we find no teaching
or suggestion to place the bridge fiber, configured for
connecting with optical fibers having different dispersion
characteristics than the bridge fiber, within the packages
housing the DCF. That is, although Keys discloses placing the
DCF on spools within packages of a housing 340, none of the three
embodiments places the bridging fiber within the packages. The
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