Appeal No. 97-0289
Application No. 08/111,332
and reverse the obviousness rejection of claims 1 through 3,
5 and 6.
Gryctko discloses (Figure 13) a modular leakage current
detector and interrupter that includes a sense module 17 for
detecting ground fault currents in load 35, and a circuit
interrupt module 16 that is responsive to an interrupt signal
from elements 41 and 39 of the sense module to disconnect the
line current to the load. A power supply is located in the
sense module 17, and a shunt trip coil 40 is located in the
circuit interrupt module 16. For a remote test and control
module, the examiner turns to Morris which discloses (Figure
2) a modular ground fault circuit breaker that includes a push
to test button 26 and test spring 29. A ground fault can be
simulated by pressing the test button 26.
According to the examiner (Answer, pages 3 and 4), “[i]t
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to
combine the teachings of Morris into the teaching of Gryctko
because the use of fault simulating test arrangements is old
and well known in the art, with the use of modular components
understood not to change the function of a ground fault
interrupter.” We agree with the examiner that a test
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