Appeal No. 96-1201
Application 08/122,970
The claimed invention relates to a reinforcement for
automotive body panels. More specifically, the tooling holes are
configured so that paint draining from the tooling hole
reinforcement points does not engender a drip or run.
Claim 1 reproduced below is further illustrative of
the claimed subject matter.
1. A reinforcement for an automotive body panel
positioned in vertically extending orientation for receiving a
liquid surface coating thereon, the body panel including a
generally vertically extending exterior surface, the
reinforcement comprising;
means defining a depression on the surface, said
depression having a portion parallel to said body panel and
imperforate canted portions extending between said parallel
portion and said exterior surface; and
means defining a nonfunneling surface proximate the
lower terminus of said depression for collecting excess liquid
surface coating applied to the panel and for preventing the
liquid surface coating from running onto surfaces directly
beneath said reinforcement.
The reference relied upon as evidence in a 35 U.S.C. §
103 obviousness rejection is:
DeRees 4,848,835 July 18, 1989
THE REJECTION
The examiner has rejected claims 1-13 under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 as unpatentable over appellants' admitted prior art in view
of DeRees. According to the examiner, figures 1 and 2 of
appellants’ drawings illustrate, and the accompanying portion of
-2-
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