Appeal 2007-0387
Application 09/756,688
1 to attempt to offset the bearing dimensions. Unfortunately, it has
2 heretofore been extremely difficult to service those bearings, since
3 some of the features that enabled a part to be serviced in the prior art
4 were the very same features that contributed undesirably to size.
5 Patents exemplary of the prior art include U.S. patents 941,827 to
6 Trouche; 1,953,599 to Grimes; 3,430,603 to Parish; 3,752,111 to
7 Meynier; 4,676,756 to Rodrigue et al; 4,726,796 to Rivette et al; and
8 Des 259,488 to Carter et al, each incorporated herein by reference for
9 their teachings of marine propulsion systems. These patents, several
10 which are associated with commercial products being sold presently,
11 illustrate the use of bushings, particularly adjacent the propeller.
12 Bushings have for many years been known to present greater
13 friction and wear than bearings, and so to be less desirable, for all but
14 the lowest cost applications where the extra expense of bearings could
15 not be justified and for the special situations where bearings are not
16 acceptable. In the case of the marine vehicles, the added expense of
17 bearings is nominal, and not the motivation for using bushings.
18 Instead, as aforementioned, water exposure and size are primarily
19 responsible for designers resorting to bushings. Chandler et al, in
20 U.S. patent 2,096,223 incorporated herein by reference, illustrate the
21 use of bearings at both the top and bottom of the propeller shaft.
22 Unfortunately, the Chandler et al patent incorporates the bearings into
23 a much larger and more expensive cast propeller shaft housing. This
24 structure adds significant drag in the water.
25
26 PRINCIPLES OF LAW
27 The prior art may anticipate a claimed invention, and thereby render it
28 non-novel, either expressly or inherently. In re Cruciferous Sprout Litig., 301 F.3d
29 1343, 1349, 64 USPQ2d 1202, 1206 (Fed. Cir. 2002), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 907
30 (2003). Express anticipation occurs when the prior art expressly discloses each
31 limitation (i.e., each element) of a claim. Id. In addition, “[i]t is well settled that a
32 prior art reference may anticipate when the claim limitations not expressly found in
33 that reference are nonetheless inherent in it.” Id.
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