Ex Parte 6196681 et al - Page 11


                Appeal 2007-0554                                                                                 
                Reexamination Nos. 90/006,118 & 90/006,254                                                       
                Patent 6,196,681 B1                                                                              
                hard sections of its unitary nose piece for an eye covering in a single co-                      
                injection molding step, as opposed to prior art processing whereby the two                       
                sections would be separately molded and chemically bonded together, so to                        
                achieve substantial savings in both processing and assembly time.  We see                        
                no reversible error in the examiner’s position.                                                  
                       Appellant cannot credibly deny that persons having ordinary skill in                      
                the art would have been able to make and use a more complex unitary                              
                structure of the type described by Conway using the single co-injection                          
                molding process used by Fecteau to make its nosepiece without undue                              
                experimentation or additional instruction.  Appellant’s Specification                            
                provides no more instruction to make and use its complex unitary structure                       
                for an eye covering than the combined teachings of Conway and Fecteau                            
                would have provided persons having ordinary skill in the art.                                    
                       We also agree with the Examiner that it would have been prima facie                       
                obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to use a single co-                         
                injection mold to make the eyewear described or suggested by Conway with                         
                the soft portion of the nose piece “having a plurality of flexible fingers                       
                adapted for engaging the nose of a wearer” (Br. App. Claim 2) in view of                         
                Chiang’s teaching.  Chiang’s Figure 4B eyewear includes “base sections 20                        
                extend[ing] a distance from the rim 10 with the contact sections 21 further                      
                extending therefrom . . . for more comfortable engagement with the wearer’s                      
                face” (Chiang, col. 3, ll. 47-51).   Chiang describes (Chiang, col. 3, ll. 57-                   
                63):                                                                                             
                The face contact means 2 comprises a plurality of slits 201 extending                            
                       from the free ends of the contact sections 21 to the base sections 20                     

                                                       11                                                        

Page:  Previous  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  Next

Last modified: September 9, 2013