Appeal No. 97-0032
Application No. 08/095,295
Touzani and Gershman and claim 34 as being unpatentable over
Warren in view of Worrall and Touzani, we agree with the
appellants that the claimed invention would not have been
rendered obvious by the applied prior art. In that regard, we
agree with the appellants (brief, pp. 22-27) that the applied
prior art does not suggest a bellows compartment having pleats
comprising a long section and a short section and each side pleat
being joined to the bottom pleat by a rounded pleated corner such
that each pleat will be bistable.
As to this limitation the examiner stated that it would5
have been obvious to modify Warren's purse to be pleated as
suggested by Worrall and to have each pleat include a long
section and a short section such that each pleat will be bistable
as suggested by Touzani. In our view, the examiner has in this
instance resorted to the use of impermissible hindsight to
reconstruct the claimed invention from disparate teachings in the
prior art. In that regard, the examiner has not established why
one of ordinary skill in this art would have been motivated to
modify the pleats of Worrall provided on Warren's purse. While
5The specific limitation is found on lines 10-16 of claim
31 and lines 9-16 of claim 34.
9
Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007