Appeal No. 2001-2589 Page 6
Application No. 09/072,911
Claim 1 stands rejected as being unpatentable over Rotax in view of Herman.
The examiner finds that Rotax discloses all of the subject matter recited in claim 1
except for having “a plurality of visible radial indications” on the planar angle
mensuration device. However, the examiner further finds that such a feature is taught
by Herman, and concludes that it would have been obvious to add it to the Rotax device
to facilitate reading the angle (Answer, page 4). The appellants present a number of
arguments in opposition, including lack of recognition of the problem to which the
appellants have directed their inventive efforts, lack of suggestion to combine the
references in the manner proposed by the examiner, and failure of the teachings of the
references, even if combined, to result in the claimed invention.
Rotax is directed to a cutter useful to cut moldings of the type used with electrical
wires, with the stated objective being to “significantly increase the force exerted
manually” upon the article to be cut (translation, page 1). The device comprises first
and second spaced parallel arms (4 and 6-7) which are pivotally joined together (at 1),
and are caused to operate by squeezing together a pair of handles (4 and 11).
Attached to the end of the first arm is a support member (5) and to the end of the
second a cutting blade (8). Force multiplication is provided by the manner in which the
handle that operates the blade is attached to the arms that support the blade. In
operation, the molding to be cut is placed between the support member and the blade,
whereupon the handles are moved towards one another, causing the molding to be
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