Appeal No. 98-1238
Application No. 08/115,187
Here, Hubbard teaches a support bracket for positioning a
member that is to be installed between wall support structures
comprising an elongated flat planar strip 36 of electrically
insulating material (i.e., "plastic" - see column 2, line 9)
including mounting surfaces (see Fig. 1) and an array of
apertures 48,46 spaced along the length of the strip.
Although the strip of Hubbard is illustrated as positioning
and supporting pipe, it clearly has the capability of being
used to position and support wire in the claimed manner.
After all, the support bracket of Hubbard would not undergo a
metamorphosis to a new support bracket simply because it was
used to position and support wire, rather than pipe. See In
re Pearson, 494 F.2d 1399, 1403, 181 USPQ 641, 644 (CCPA 1974)
and Ex parte Masham, 2 USPQ2d 1647, 1648 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int.
1987).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Hubbard in view of Knell. Hubbard teaches
the claimed method except that the elongated flat planar strip
or support bracket is used to position and support pipe rather
than a wire as claimed. Knell, however, teaches an elongated
support bracket 10 with spaced apertures 20 that are used to
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