Ex parte KOBAYASHI et al. - Page 2




                Appeal No. 96-0005                                                                                                            
                Application 07/722,599                                                                                                        


                         This is an appeal from the final rejection of claims 1, 3,                                                           
                15, 16, 19, 20, 36, 37, 62 and 63.   Claims 4-14, 17, 18, 21-29,2                                                                    
                32, 35 and 38-40 stand allowed.  Claims 41-51, 64 and 65 have                                                                 
                been indicated by the examiner to be allowable subject to the                                                                 
                requirement that they be rewritten to include all the subject                                                                 
                matter of the claims from which they depend.                                                                                  
                         As summarized on page 2 of the brief, the appellants’                                                                
                invention                                                                                                                     
                         is directed toward a type of watercraft which may be                                                                 
                         used in conjunction with a small conventional jet                                                                    
                         propelled type of watercraft so as to accommodate a                                                                  
                         larger number of passengers than that afforded by the                                                                
                         smaller watercraft.  However, the larger watercraft,                                                                 
                         sometimes referred to as the mother ship, has no                                                                     
                         propulsion unit of its own.  In accordance with an                                                                   
                         important feature of the invention, the passenger                                                                    
                         compartment of the mother ship is laid out so that the                                                               
                         controls of the smaller watercraft, when contained in a                                                              
                         berthing area of the mother ship, can be reached by a                                                                
                         seated passenger so that the combined watercraft may be                                                              
                         propelled by the propulsion device of the smaller                                                                    
                         watercraft while being controlled from the larger                                                                    
                         watercraft.                                                                                                          
                Independent claim 1 is further illustrative of the appealed                                                                   
                subject matter and reads as follows:                                                                                          
                         1.  A watercraft comprised of a main hull devoid of any                                                              
                propulsion device or control therefor and defining a berthing                                                                 
                area opening through a part of said main hull for receiving a                                                                 
                smaller watercraft having a propulsion device and controls                                                                    
                therefore, a passenger compartment defined by said main hull and                                                              

                         2Claim 62 has been amended by an amendment filed subsequent                                                          
                to final rejection on December 12, 1994 (Paper No. 29).                                                                       
                                                                    -2-                                                                       




Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007