Appeal No. 95-3444
Application 08/037,304
(3) Claims 7, 13, 18 and 21, Gagnon in view of Beberman and
Jorgensen.
With regard to claim 1, appellants do not contend that
Gagnon does not disclose any of the recited structure, except
that:
(I) Insulators 13 of Gagnon are not “fabricated from a pulltruded
[sic] insulating material;” and
(II) Gagnon does not disclose plate 11 or 12 as having “a tab
extending . . . 50 percent of the thickness.”
First considering contention (II), the examiner takes the
position that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill
in the art to employ the claimed tabs with the Gagnon plates 11,
12 in view of Beberman’s disclosure of a busway joint having
plates 33 to 38 spaced by means of depressions 39 stamped in the
plates to yield recesses 33b and projections 33a surrounding the
openings for fastener 64 (column 2, line 55 to column 3, line 5).
In response to the examiner’s identification of recess 33 as a
tab on page 4 of her answer, appellants argue on page 3 of their
reply brief that this is not a “reasonable interpretation of the
elements in accordance with their dictionary definitions.
Specifically, a 90 degree spacer tab is not a recess.” The
examiner responds in the first supplemental answer (Paper No. 12)
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