Appeal No. 96-1358
Application No. 08/192,055
As disclosed in the appellants’ specification, the “means for
attaching the plate member” comprises an end connector (36 and
46) which is fixedly joined to the ends of the plurality of
telescoping tubes which constitute each plate member, with the
end connector being attached by horizontally oriented pins (52)
to the end of the rail car. As a result, movement of the plate
member is restricted to pivoting upwardly and downwardly about
the horizontally oriented pins.
The German reference discloses a connecting walkway between
two train cars. The walkway comprises two opposed sets of inter-
digitating members removably attached at one of their ends to the
end of a rail car, and in telescoping relationship with respect
to one another. The means for removably attaching each set of
members to the rail cars comprises a horizontally oriented rod
(7) which permits pivotal movement about a horizontal axis (see
Figure 4) and a plurality of vertically oriented pins (5) which
permit pivotal movement about a vertical axis (see Figure 3).
Thus, members are free to pivot about both horizontal and
vertical axes, rather than being limited to the horizontal axis,
as is required by claim 1. This being the case, the German
reference fails to disclose the required structure, and is not
anticipatory of the subject matter recited in the claim.
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