Appeal 2007-2314
Application 10/657,110
Chen, which employs the tracking system 97 that tracks the
position and orientation of the scope itself (i.e., pitch, roll),
specifically describes the advantage of being able to consider
the scope and field of view software objects 90A, 90B as a
single unit when being positioned within the 3-D computer
models by maintaining a fixed relationship between the two. . . .
Accordingly, Chen actually suggests that it is undesirable to
employ an internal view changing mechanism that would
change the direction of view relative to the position of the scope
itself.
(Id. at 9-10.)
We are not persuaded by this argument.
A reference may be said to teach away when a person of
ordinary skill, upon reading the reference, would be
discouraged from following the path set out in the reference, or
would be led in a direction divergent from the path that was
taken by the applicant. The degree of teaching away will of
course depend on the particular facts; in general, a reference
will teach away if it suggests that the line of development
flowing from the reference’s disclosure is unlikely to be
productive of the result sought by the applicant.
In re Gurley, 27 F.3d 551, 553 (Fed. Cir. 1994). We do not agree that the
teachings of Dohi and Chen pointed to by Appellants would have led in a
direction divergent from the path taken by Appellants. As noted by
Appellants, Dohi “explains that the objective of the Dohi system is to
acquire images of particular, focused areas without moving or bending the
scope” (Br. 9). Rather than teaching away from combining Dohi with Chen,
we conclude that this teaching provides motivation to combine these
references.
In addition, although Chen indicates that “it can sometimes be
convenient to think of shaft software object 90A’ and disk software
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013