Appeal No. 2004-0436
Application 09/746,251
thereof which, with a partial pocket of an adjacent segment forms a complete bottle receiving
pocket, and
releasable fastener means for securing said three identical carrier segments on said
annular outer supporting portion.
Appealed claim 1 is drawn to a glass container inspection machine comprising at least a
star wheel carrier assembly including at least the components specified in the claim, wherein the
star wheel has “three identical carrier segments arranged in side by side relation to form an
annular carrier, each having a plurality of bottle receiving pockets and a partial pocket at either
end thereof which, with a partial pocket of an adjacent segment forms a complete bottle receiving
pocket.” According to appellant, “each edge of each ring portion[, that is, carrier segment,] can
end with a half pocket” (brief, page 4; see specification, e.g., page 3, lines 22-25, describing FIG.
2).
The reference relied on by the examiner is:
Kantor 2,370,969 Mar. 6, 1945
The examiner has rejected appealed claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Kantor.1
We affirm.
Rather than reiterate the respective positions advanced by the examiner and appellant, we
refer to the examiner’s answer and to appellant’s brief for a complete exposition thereof.
Opinion
We have carefully reviewed the record on this appeal and based thereon find ourselves in
agreement with the supported position advanced by the examiner (Paper No. 8, pages 2-3;
answer, pages 2-3) that, prima facie, the design of the two carrier segments of star wheel 43 in
Kantor Fig. 12 described at page 2, left column, lines 27-32, each segment of which identically
having a partial pocket at each end thereof, would have reasonably motivated one of ordinary
1 The examiner refers to the Office action mailed September 26, 2002 (Paper No. 8) for a
statement of the ground of rejection (answer, page 2). We find that the “attached marked up
drawing figure of Kantor” referred to in Paper No. 8 is attached to the Office action mailed
January 24, 2002 (Paper No. 5) wherein the same statement of the ground of rejection appears.
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