Appeal No. 2005-2760
Application 09/915,963
shaped finite ground plane (column 5, lines 1-3). Accordingly,
it would appear reasonable that the skilled artisan would have
been led to employ such a disk shaped ground plane in other
antenna structures, seeking the advantages taught by Ogot. Now,
in applying such a teaching, the artisan would not, willy nilly,
merely make a direct substitution but, rather, the artisan would
have employed prudent engineering considerations. That is,
contrary to appellant’s implications in the “teaching away”
argument, supra, it is clear that the artisan would have adjusted
for the bandwidth size of the necessary ground plane. Merely
because the “size” of the ground planes may be different in Wicks
and Ogot, this does not, per se, indicate a “teaching away” since
the artisan would have been expected to make adjustments in size,
and other prudent engineering considerations, in adapting
different antenna characteristics to differing environments.
Ogot’s teaching of being able to maximize the surface area
of the ground plane perpendicular to the transmission element,
and to provide a uniform transmission pattern, by the use of a
symmetrically disk shaped finite ground plane, in our view, would
have clearly suggested to the artisan to use a ground plane
having those characteristics in other antenna structures, such as
in Wicks, in order to achieve similar advantages. We find no
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