Ex Parte Venegas - Page 3

                Appeal 2007-2844                                                                             
                Application 09/829,032                                                                       
                      3)  Claims 1 and 5-9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being                  
                obvious over the combination of Brault and Cragg (id. at 6).                                 
                      As Appellant does not argue the rejections separately, and as the                      
                rejections are essentially the same, the following analysis applies to all three             
                grounds of rejection.  In addition, claims 5-9 stand or fall with claim 1 (Br.               
                2).                                                                                          
                      Brault is relied upon for teaching a support apparatus having “all of                  
                the limitations of the claimed invention except for the collar having one                    
                aperture and a plurality of spaced apart through holes.”  (Answer 4.)  Brault                
                is also relied upon for its teaching that the support apparatus, i.e. base                   
                member, has a plurality of uses (Brault col. 2, ll. 63-66).  Brault teaches that             
                the support apparatus may be used as, for example, “as a stand for traffic                   
                signs, for supporting a post for various games such as for holding the basket                
                in basketball, for holding a net in tennis or badminton games and for                        
                generally holding pictograms or shelves.”  (Brault, col. 3, ll. 1-6.)                        
                      Ferrari, Wilson, or Cragg are relied upon for their disclosure of a base               
                that is either fillable (Ferrari and Wilson) or weighted (Cragg), wherein the                
                base has a collar having a aperture and a fastener, and for teaching a post                  
                having a plurality of spaced apart holes (Answer 4-6).  The Examiner                         
                concludes that “[i]t would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in                 
                the art to have modified Brault to hav[e] included the collar having an                      
                aperture, a fastener, and the post having a plurality of spaced apart through                
                holes as taught by [Ferrari, Wilson or] Cragg for the purpose of adjusting the               
                height of the stand to accommodate various heights when used as a                            
                basketball sign support, a traffic sign, a tennis net support or badminton                   
                game apparatus as discussed . . . [by] Brault.”  (Id. at 6.)                                 

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