Appeal No. 99-0158
Application 08/616,787
claims 1, 5, 9 through 11 and 23. Claims 2 and 3, the only
other claims pending in the application, stand withdrawn from
consideration pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.142(b). We reverse.
The invention relates to “superplastic forming of tubular
structures, and more particularly to end sealing of a tubular
blank of superplastic material in preparation for superplastic
forming to the final shape” (specification, page 1). A copy
of the appealed claims appears in the appendix to the
appellant’s main brief (Paper No. 25).
The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Macha 2,861,530 Nov. 25, 1958
Fields, Jr. et al. (Fields) 3,340,101 Sept. 5,
1967 Greacen 3,900,939 Aug. 26,
1975
Miller et al. (Miller) 5,022,135 Jun. 11, 1991
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
follows:
a) claims 1, 10 and 23 as being unpatentable over Fields
in view of Greacen;
b) claim 5 as being unpatentable over Fields in view of
Greacen and Macha; and
c) claims 9 and 11 as being unpatentable over Fields in
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