Appeal 2007-0001
Application 09/944,589
Knack discloses that a bonded magnet can be formed of a mixture of
magnetic material and non-magnetic material, such as rubber. The quantity
of rubber being within the range of 2 to 15 wt%.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would know that the use of a heat
resistant rubber would eliminate or at least reduce the cracking caused by
temperature changes in a magnetized encoder. A person of ordinary skill in
the art would have been motivated to utilize heat resistant rubber in the
magnetized encoder of Alff to eliminate the well known problem of cracking
in order to increase the efficiency of the encoder. The modified Alff
magnetized encoder, formed of heat resistant rubber as is used in the claimed
magnetized encoder, would have the same thermal characteristics as the
claimed magnetized encoder.
ANALYSIS
Enablement rejection
The Examiner states that because the Appellant does not disclose
mixing ratios of powder ferrite and either heat resistant nitrile rubber, acrylic
rubber or fluorine containing rubber utilized to form the encoder, a person
would not be able to make the encoder without undue experimentation.
However, the fact that the exact ratios are not disclosed in the Specification,
does not establish that a person of ordinary skill in the art would not be able
to make and use the invention without undue experimentation. Such lack of
disclosure may establish that there is a need for some experimentation but
does not establish that the experimentation is undue. The Examiner has
failed to evaluate the amount of experimentation needed in accordance with
the factors enumerated in Wands, 858 F.2d at 737, 8 USPQ2d at 1404. For
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013