Application of Jaeger
| Decision Date | 08 February 1957 |
| Docket Number | Patent Appeals No. 6236. |
| Citation | 241 F.2d 723,44 CCPA 767 |
| Parties | Matter of the Application of Jacob J. JAEGER and John M. Rusnak. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) |
Joseph K. Schofield, West Hartford, Conn. (J. P. Wetherill, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for appellants.
Clarence W. Moore, Washington, D. C. (H. S. Miller, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for the Commissioner of Patents.
Before JOHNSON, Chief Judge, and O'CONNELL, WORLEY, RICH, and JACKSON (retired), Judges.
This is an appeal from a decision of the Board of Appeals affirming the examiner's rejection of claims 1 through 10 of appellants' patent application, filed July 22, 1950, for "Precision Positioning Means," disclosed as embodied in a jig boring machine. The record discloses that the alleged invention has for several years been standard equipment in the Pratt & Whitney No. 4E jig borer.
Appellants conceded at the argument that if claim 1 is not patentable, none are; that all the claims stand or fall together. Claim 1 is illustrative and is here set forth:
"A positioning device for a machine tool work table comprising a base, a table movable thereon, an elongated bar of magnetic material secured to said table and extending in the direction of movement thereof, a linear series of equally spaced integral projections formed along one side of said bar, an electric head movably mounted within said base closely adjacent said projections, and precision means to move said electric head predetermined limited disstances in a direction parallel to said bar." (Emphasis ours.)
The references relied upon are:
Rusnak et al. 2,440,916 May 4, 1948 Godsey, Jr. 2,461,685 Feb. 15, 1949
The claimed invention is for precision positioning means for the work table of a machine tool including a base upon which the table is movable. Secured to the table is a bar of magnetic material, having equally spaced integral projections formed along one side, the bar extending in the direction of movement of the table. An electromagnetic head, having two electromagnets, is movably mounted within the base closely adjacent the plane in which the projections move. There is also provided micrometer mechanism to move said head predetermined limited distances in a direction parallel to the bar. Means are provided to traverse the table to bring the appropriate projection on the bar directly between the pole pieces of the precision adjusted head. When a projection is directly between the pole pieces of the electromagnets, voltages induced in the magnet coils will be equal so that an indicating instrument in a bridge circuit including the magnet coils will show a zero reading indicative of precise adjustment of the work table. The equally spaced bar projections may, for example, be one inch apart and the movement of the electromagnetic head used to make fractional inch adjustments. Two such bars and head may be used, one set applied to the table and its supporting saddle and the other between the saddle and the machine bed, the bars extending at right angles so that the table may be accurately positioned under the boring head.
Although the claims are drawn to combinations, it is conceded that the only novelty residing therein is the specific form of the bar, an improvement in one element of the combination. Stated otherwise, the Rusnak et al. reference admittedly discloses the claimed positioning mechanism except that the bar there described was of non-magnetic material with inserts of an alloy having high magnetic permeability mechanically clamped therein and equally spaced at the time of clamping. It is also noted that the inserts projected beyond the surface of the bar. The inserts functioned precisely as do the integral projections of the bar of the instant application. The present coinventor John M. Rusnak is the same Rusnak who was a joint inventor in the reference patent. He claims to have improved upon the prior invention in which he participated.
The sole issue before us is whether the change from a non-magnetic bar with magnetic inserts to a one-piece bar of magnetic material with integral projections was a patentable advance. Novelty, in the sense of a difference pointed out in the claims, is not in dispute. That the integral bar of magnetic material is better, an improvement, was conceded at the argument by the Solicitor for the Patent Office. Utility may therefore be presumed. There remains, however, the question of compliance with the requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 103, unobviousness at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the subject matter pertains. If this element is lacking, the decision below must be affirmed.
We think the use of the bar of magnetic material with integral projections, as claimed, was an obvious step forward and so...
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