Appeal No. 2004-1500
Application No. 09/736,673
double patenting rejections as well as the prior art rejection of
most (though not all) of the pending claims. Via Paper No. 20, the
Examiner has responded to the Appellants’ filings by stating that
“[t]he amendment and Terminal Disclaimer is [sic] entered” and that
“[a]s a result the only claims still under appeal are claims 9-12,
under section 103." Thus, the Examiner ultimately has withdrawn
all of his final rejections except for the § 103 rejection of
claims 9-12 which are, therefore, the only claims left before us on
this appeal.
The subject matter on appeal relates to a tire mounting
apparatus. With reference to the Appellants’ drawing, the
apparatus 10 comprises a bead-mounting tool 38 which is
moveable along a plurality of predetermined tire-mounting paths
corresponding to a size of the rim and tire to be mounted and
including at least one non-circular tire-mounting path (e.g., a
vertical path). Further details of this appealed subject matter
are set forth in representative independent claim 9 which reads as
follows:
9. In a tire mounting apparatus for mounting a flexible tire
on a rim, the improvement comprising:
a bead-mounting tool having a rim engaging portion and a tire
engaging portion for forcing the bead of the tire over the rim in
response to controlled movement of the tool with respect to the rim
and tire, the tool moveable along a plurality of predetermined
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