Appeal No. 97-0739
Application 08/163,265
matter of obvious mechanical expedient and design choice to make
the material [more correctly the entire holder of Smith] out of
wire" (answer, page 5).
Smith repeatedly refers to the holder therein as
having "a rigid body" (see, e.g., col. 1, line 59, and claims 1,
3 and 4 thereof) and discloses that the holder is "preferably
constructed of a rigid material such as wood or the like"
(col. 2, lines 24-25). Sturges likewise conveys the idea that
the mooring device therein is made of a sturdy, rigid material.
Page 1, lines 42-44, of Sturges notes that the body member (A) of
the mooring device is formed of "a metal plate or casting." Both
of these references appear to us to teach away from a relatively
light-weight wire construction as seen in appellants' application
and as set forth in the claims on appeal. Given the disclosure
in the applied references, we conclude, as appellants have
(brief, page 7), that the examiner's proposed modification of
the holder of Smith as modified by Sturges to be made of a wire
member is based on hindsight derived from appellants'
application. Regarding claim 3 on appeal, we share appellants'
view as expressed in the last paragraph on page 8 of their brief.
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