Appeal 2006-3072
Application 10/419,763
col. 5, l. 34, and col. 6, l. 16, to col. 9, l. 37). The surface of the first
substrate can comprise, inter alia, a polyimide or aromatic polyamide film
selectively subjected to a uniaxial aligning treatment as an alignment control
layer, and the second substrate can comprise, inter alia, a polyimide not
subjected to uniaxial alignment, a silane coupling agent, or a fluorine-
containing resin as alignment control layer, wherein the surface energy of
the first alignment control layer is greater than the surface energy of the
second alignment control layer (id., e.g., col. 3, ll. 19-22; col. 5, ll. 35-43;
col. 9, l. 38, to col. 13, l. 36; col. 14, ll. 27-54; col. 14, l. 66, to col. 15, l. 10;
Fig. 1; and Example 1). We find Nakamura teaches that in this arrangement
of elements, the alignment defects encountered with the perfluoroether
terminal chain containing liquid crystal material can be suppressed to a
negligible level and a uniform, homogeneous alignment if, in addition to
difference in the surface energies of the first and second alignment control
layers on the respective opposed cell walls, the surface energy of an ordinary
perfluoroether terminal chain containing liquid crystal material is less than
the surface energy of an alignment control film (id., e.g., col. 5, l. 35, to
col. 6, l. 4; col. 13, ll. 12-33; and Example 1). Nakamura further teaches that
if the surface energy of an ordinary perfluoroether terminal chain containing
liquid crystal material is greater than the surface energy of an alignment
control film a homeotropic alignment develops, and that the surface energy
of perfluoroether terminal chain containing liquid crystal material is less
than that of a fluorine-free liquid crystal material (id., e.g., col. 13, ll. 26-29).
We find Martinot-Lagarde would have acknowledged “[i]t is well
known to the person skilled in the art that molecules of nematic phases
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