Appeal 2006-3327
Application 10/137,582
using a hinged motorcycle seat, articles hanging from the seat can be secured from
theft and the interior section of the seat can be used for safe storage of articles
housed in the vehicle body. These stated benefits of the hinged seat design of
Uchida would have provided sufficient motivation to one having ordinary skill in
the art to have used this hinged seat on the motorcycle seat of Hanagan. As such,
we agree with the Examiner that it would have been obvious to one having
ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have mounted the seat
platform of Hanagan with hinges, as taught by Uchida, to provide access to
components and storage underneath the seat. Since the backrest of Hanagan is
bolted to the platform of the saddle, if the saddle were hinged, as in Uchida, the
backrest would pivot along with the saddle and remain in its erect position,
resulting in the invention of claim 1.
Appellant cites two exhibits to show conventional backrests mounted on the
motorcycle frame or fender rather than on the platform of the saddle (Br. 5-6).
Appellant describes that such constructions have frequently presented problems
from the standpoint of ease of pivoting of the saddle and of working on the
underlying components (Br. 6). While this may indeed be a disadvantage of these
types of prior art backrests, the backrest of Hanagan does not suffer from this
disadvantage because it is bolted to the saddle instead of the frame or fender.
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