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 12Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
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