Appeal No. 97-1002
Application 08/014,379
4. The rejection of claims 4, 5 and 14-
17 as unpatentable over Zisa, Melanson
and Dell Orfano.
This rejection is similar to the first rejection
discussed above except that Dell Orfano is added to the
collective teachings. Dell Orfano is added to the combination
because it teaches a transient voltage surge suppressor using
only varistors to clip the voltage and shunt the surge current to
ground. We agree with the examiner that Dell Orfano would be
sufficient to overcome the first deficiency in the Zisa-Melanson
combination discussed above. That is, we agree that Dell Orfano
would have suggested to the artisan the obviousness of using
varistors only to clip voltage surges and shunt surge currents to
ground. Nevertheless, the second deficiency of the Zisa-Melanson
combination discussed above is not corrected by the addition of
Dell Orfano as applied by the examiner. The examiner does not
rely on Dell Orfano at all to teach supporting the surge
suppressor circuit on the blade-like terminals of a watt-hour
meter. The examiner still relies on Zisa and Melanson for this
teaching which, as noted above, is not supported by the reference
teachings. Therefore, this rejection still lacks a valid
explanation as to why the claimed support by the blade-like
terminals would have been obvious in view of the applied prior
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