Appeal No. 97-1544
Application 08/358,976
they
depend, and the examiner’s rejections of such claims under 35
U.S.C. § 103 will thus also be sustained.
Looking next at the examiner’s rejection of independent
claim 28 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) based on Matsui, we share
the examiner’s view that Matsui (as discussed above) discloses
a switch type crash sensor as set forth in appellant’s claim
28 on appeal. In this instance, we observe that the tape
switch of (Figs. 15a, 15b) mounted directly to and across the
entire extent of the frame member (129) of Figure 21a (as in
col. 23, lines 56-65, of Matsui) comprises an actuating member
as set forth in clause a) of claim 28; a cover means (99, 97)
for reducing the sensitivity of said tape switch such that “at
least a twenty pound force” is required to cause said switch
to bend along its length (see col. 6, lines 15-19), with said
bending causing the first conductive member (95) of the switch
to contact the second conductive member (95N) thereby causing
said switch/sensor to change from a nonconducting state to a
8
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