Appeal No. 2006-3118
Application No. 10/144,884
teaches such a relationship in a printing press in col. 3, lines 25-28 (noting that
the blanket cylinder in the disclosed printing press may have a circumference
that is half that of the plate cylinder).
We find that the skilled artisan would have reasonably combined Rieker’s
teaching with Richards. In short, we agree with the examiner that providing a
plate cylinder with at least twice the circumference of the associated blanket
cylinder as suggested by Rieker would, at a minimum, increase efficiency of the
printing process. As shown in Fig. 8 of Rieker, plate cylinder 100 has four colors
thereon: yellow, cyan, magenta, and black. Thus, by providing a considerably
large plate cylinder, multiple colors can be applied to a single plate cylinder.
We see no reason why the skilled artisan could not apply this teaching to
Richards. In our view, replacing the plate cylinders 4a and 4b with larger plate
cylinders to achieve at least a 2:1 ratio as claimed would, at a minimum, enable
more colors to be applied to the plate cylinder, and ultimately the web.
For at least these reasons, we find ample motivation on this record for the
skilled artisan to provide larger plate cylinders both above and below the web 40.
Although it is unclear from Richards whether a different color is associated with
the second plate and blanket cylinders, we nonetheless find that such color
selection would have been a design preference well within the level of one of
ordinary skill in the art.
Additionally, although Rieker provides one plate cylinder for two blanket
cylinders so that multi-color, superimposed images are printed two colors at a
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