Ex Parte Kimmel et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardMay 31, 2017

12859904 (P.T.A.B. May. 31, 2017)

United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O.Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 12/859,904 08/20/2010 Keith D. Kimmel 2010P14920US 8923 28524 7590 06/02/2017 SIEMENS CORPORATION INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT 3501 Quadrangle Blvd Ste 230 EXAMINER BEEBE, JOSHUA R Orlando, EL 32817 ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3745 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 06/02/2017 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): ipdadmin.us@siemens.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte KEITH D. KIMMEL and JACK WILSON Appeal 2015-006220 Application 12/859,904 Technology Center 3700 Before MICHAEL L. HOELTER, LYNNE H. BROWNE, and JEFFREY A. STEPHENS, Administrative Patent Judges. BROWNE, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Keith D. Kimmel and Jack Wilson (Appellants) appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the rejection of claims 1, 2, 4—6, 8—13, and 19 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Bobo (US 3,302,926, iss. Feb. 7, 1967), Wilson (US 7,210,899 B2, iss. May 1, 2007), and Leonard (US Appeal 2015-006220 Application 12/859,904 5,295,787, iss. Mar. 22, 1994).1 We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We reverse. CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER Claim 1, reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter: 1. A vane carrier assembly for supporting vanes within a main engine casing of a gas turbine engine, said vane carrier assembly comprising: a plurality of vane support panels positioned adjacent to one another so as to define a vane support assembly, said support panels being assembled such that said support panels expand circumferentially to minimize radial expansion of said vane support assembly during operation of the gas turbine engine, said support panels extending over at least one row of blades; and a control ring loosely coupled to the main engine casing, said vane support assembly being coupled to said control ring, wherein said plurality of vane support panels are made from a first material and said control ring is made from a second material, wherein said second material is thermally more stable than said first material. DISCUSSION With respect to independent claim 1, the Examiner finds that the combined teachings of Bobo, Wilson, and Leonard disclose or suggest all of the limitations of independent claims 1 and 12. See Final Act. 7—10, 12—15. In particular with respect to claim 1, the Examiner finds that Bobo discloses 1 The Examiner withdraws the rejection of claims 14—18 and 20. Ans. 2. As claims 15 and 16, as well as claims 3 and 7, were previously canceled in an amendment filed August 6, 2013, we understand the Examiner to withdraw the rejection of claims 14, 17, 18, and 20. 2 Appeal 2015-006220 Application 12/859,904 “[a] control ring loosely coupled to the main engine casing, said vane support assembly being coupled to said control ring. [The circular flange (31) directly fixed and projecting from the vane support panels disclose a loose connection between main engine casing and the outermost portion of the vane support assembly/control ring, which can be seen in Figure 1]” and that Wilson discloses “[a] U-shaped retainment ring suitable for attachment to an engine casing . . . which is further affixed to retainer (16) which permits the segmented shroud (14) free circumferential expansion in the manner shown in Figures 2 and 3.” Final Act. 8—9. Based on inter alia these findings, the Examiner determines that it would have been obvious “to modify the vane assembly panels (26, 25, 27) of Bobo to be connected to the outer casing (10) by means of the U-shaped support ring (12) of Wilson affixed about engine flange (46).” Id. at 9. The Examiner makes similar findings and determinations with respect to the rejection of independent claim 12. See Final Act. 13. Noting that “independent claim 1 recites ‘a control ring loosely coupled to the main engine casing’ and independent claim 12 recites ‘a control ring adapted to be supported by the engine casing for movement relative to the engine casing,’” Appellants contend that Wilson does not disclose a loose connection between the control ring and the engine casing. Appeal Br. 15. In support of this contention, Appellants note that “Wilson states that the support ring is ‘suitably attached to the engine case.’” Id. (citing Wilson 3:54—56). As admitted by the Examiner, Wilson does not describe how its U-shaped support ring is attached to the engine case. See Ans. 3; see also Wilson 3:54—54. Accordingly, based on the record before us, we cannot determine if Wilson’s attachment is a loose connection or not. Thus, given 3 Appeal 2015-006220 Application 12/859,904 that the rejection of claim 1 proposes replacing Bobo’s control ring with Wilson’s U-shaped ring, and because “we may not resolve doubts in favor of the Patent Office determination when there are deficiencies in the record as to the necessary factual bases supporting its legal conclusion of obviousness,” we agree with Appellants that the resulting combination is not shown to have the required loose connection. In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017 (CCPA 1967). For this reason, we do not sustain the Examiner decision rejecting claim 1. The rejection of claim 12 proposes the same modification and, thus, suffers from the same deficiency. Accordingly, we do not sustain the Examiner’s decision rejecting claim 12, and claims 2, 4—6, 8—11, 13, and 19, which depend from either claim 1 or claim 12 for the same reason. DECISION The Examiner’s rejection of claims 1, 2, 4—6, 8—13, and 19 is REVERSED. REVERSED 4