Appeal No. 96-3132 Page 2
Application No. 08/248,521
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to a zinc-based spray
faucet hose collar weight. Claims 1 and 15 are representative of
the subject matter on appeal and a copy of those claims is
attached to the appendix to the appellant's brief.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner as evidence of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103 are:
Heimann et al. (Heimann) 4,827,538 May 9, 1989
Hochstrasser 5,090,062 Feb. 25, 1992
Claims 1, 5, 14 and 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Hochstrasser in view of Heimann.2
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by
the examiner and the appellant regarding the § 103 rejection, we
make reference to the final rejection (Paper No. 7, mailed May
2It is not clear to us why the examiner applied these two
references instead of the admitted prior art (specification, pp.
1-2). While the actual structural details of this admitted prior
art have not been disclosed by the appellant, the examiner has
the authority to issue a requirement for information requiring
applicant to provide the structural details of the admitted prior
art so that the examiner could properly determine patentability
thereover under 35 U.S.C. § 103. See MPEP § 706.02(c).
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