Ex parte SHAPIRO - Page 7




          Appeal No. 96-1996                                                          
          Application 08/181,075                                                      


          sides, and an attachment member attached to the blocking member.            
          The attachment member is in turn attached to the closure frame in           
          such a fashion that when the sliding closure is moved from the              
          closed to the open position, the blocking member is urged into an           
          operable position to block the closing of the sliding closure.              
               The Swiss reference does not disclose a frame and a sliding            
          closure.  Member 5, which contacts the door, is of rounded                  
          construction, and thus fails to have the "two parallel opposed              
          sides" which are required by claim 15.  These factors, taken with           
          the shortcomings pointed out above with regard to method claim              
          12, cause us to conclude that the teachings of this reference               
          fail to establish a prima facie case of obviousness with regard             
          to the subject matter of claim 15.                                          
               Therefore, we will not sustain the rejection of independent            
          claim 15 or, it follows, of dependent claims 16 through 19 and 21           
          through 27, which depend therefrom, as being unpatentable over              
          the Swiss reference.                                                        
               Claims 21 and 22 stand rejected on the basis of the Swiss              
          reference plus Hoopes, the latter being cited for its teaching of           
          providing "a door blocking member having a square cross section"            
          (Answer, page 5), which in the examiner's view would have been              
          obvious to install in the Swiss device "in order to provide a               

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