Ex Parte Narayanan et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardAug 29, 201311336506 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 29, 2013) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________________ Ex parte BADRI K. NARAYANAN, RUSSELL K. MYERS, and PATRICK T. SOLTIS ____________________ Appeal 2011-010936 Application 11/336,506 Technology Center 3700 ____________________ Before: JAMES P. CALVE, JEREMY M. PLENZLER, and BEVERLY M. BUNTING, Administrative Patent Judges. PLENZLER, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appeal 2011-010936 Application 11/336,506 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants seek our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of the Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 2-21, 28-36, and 62-89 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Mita ‘660 (US 5,225,660; iss. Jul. 6, 1993), Pinfold (US 4,154,999; iss. May 15, 1979), and Mita ‘317 (EP 0774317 A1; pub. May 21, 1997).1 Claims 1, 22-27, and 37-61 are withdrawn. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We REVERSE. CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER Claims 13, 62, and 89 are independent. Claim 13, reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter: 13. A welding system for performing a short arc welding process between an advancing wire electrode and a workpiece where said electrode has an end facing said workpiece, said system comprising: a power source with a controller for creating a current pulse introducing energy into said end of said electrode to melt said end and a low current quiescent metal transfer section following the end of said current pulse during which said melted electrode short circuits against said workpiece; 1 The Examiner’s Answer separately rejects claims 2-21, 28-36, and 62-89 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Mita ‘660 and Pinfold and also as being unpatentable over Mita ‘660, Pinfold, and Mita ‘317. See Ans. 4, 6. However, the Examiner relies on Mita ‘317 to teach a timer to measure the actual time between the end of the current pulse and beginning of the short circuit as recited in claims 13 and 62 and the step of measuring an actual time for a duration between the end of the melting pulse and the beginning of the short circuit as recited in claim 89. Cf. Ans. 4-6 and Ans. 6-7. Thus, we address whether claims 2-21, 28-36, and 62-89 are unpatentable over Mita ‘660, Pinfold, and Mita ‘317. Appeal 2011-010936 Application 11/336,506 3 a timer for measuring an actual time between the end of said current pulse and the beginning of said short circuit; a device for setting a desired time from an end of said current pulse to a beginning of said short circuit; a circuit for creating a corrective signal based upon a difference between said actual time and said desired time; and a circuit responsive to said corrective signal for controlling a given parameter of said current pulse, wherein said advancing wire electrode is a self-shielded flux cored arc welding (FCAWS) wire having an alloy/flux system in a core of said welding wire, said alloy/flux system comprising: from about 35 to about 55% barium fluoride; from about 2 to about 12% lithium fluoride; from about 0 to about 15% lithium oxide; from about 0 to about 15% of barium oxide; and from about 5 to about 20% iron oxide. OPINION The Examiner finds that the combination of Mita ‘660 and Pinfold discloses the majority of the features recited in claims 13, 62, and 89, but does not disclose a number of features including a timer that measures the actual time between the end of the current pulse and the beginning of the short circuit, a device that sets a desired time from the end of the current pulse to the beginning of the short circuit, a circuit that creates a corrective signal based upon a difference between the actual time and the desired time, and a circuit responsive to the corrective signal to control a given parameter of the current pulse from claims 13 and 62 or the corresponding method steps from claim 89. Ans. 4-7. The Examiner finds that Mita ‘317 discloses these additional features. Ans. 7-8. Appellants argue that Mita ‘317 discloses detecting and setting a short circuit time (i.e., the duration of the short circuit event), but does not disclose anything related to measuring a time between the end of a current Appeal 2011-010936 Application 11/336,506 4 pulse and the beginning of a short circuit. App. Br. 10-11; Reply Br. 6-7. The Examiner does not point to any specific portion of Mita ‘317 other than generally indicating that page 2, lines 40-60 and pages 3-5 disclose these features. See Ans. 7-8. Our review of Mita ‘317 indicates that Mita ‘317 measures the amount of time that a short circuit is produced and the time for supplying a base current and a pulse current in order to control the short circuit time during welding but does not disclose anything related to measuring a time between the end of a current pulse and the beginning of a short circuit. P. 2, ll. 40-60; see p. 3, l. 36 to p. 4, l. 48; fig. 2; Reply Br. 6-7 (annotating Figure 2 of Mita ‘317). Thus, the Examiner has not established by a preponderance of evidence that Mita ‘317 discloses these features and we do not sustain the rejection of claims 13, 62, and 89 or dependent claims 2-12, 14-21, 28-36, and 63-88. DECISION We REVERSE the Examiner’s decision to reject claims 2-21, 28-36, and 62-89. REVERSED mls Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation