Appeal No. 96-1358
Application No. 08/192,055
ordinary skill in the art would not have found suggestion in the
German reference for attaching the plate members in the manner
required by claim 1; to do so would be contrary to the stated
objective of the German invention, which is to provide a
connecting walkway “independent of the relative position of the
two cars” (translation, page 2). As explained in the reference,
this includes both the horizontal and vertical orientation.
The teachings of the German reference therefore fail to
establish a prima facie case of obviousness with regard to the
subject matter of claims 2-5 and 8, and we will not sustain this
rejection.
Independent claim 9 recites a portable bridge plate assembly
including a plate member formed of a plurality of spaced tubular
members “rigidly joined together at opposite ends thereof by
transverse support members.” In the German reference, the
members clearly are not rigidly joined together, as can be
readily discerned by viewing Figures 1, 2 and 3. In fact, the
system for joining the telescoping members in the reference is
the antithesis of that claimed, in that it attaches the members
together loosely by rods (14) which slide in openings in the
6
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