Appeal No. 97-1250
Application 08/347,087
annular portions and laminated together by bending the first
metal plate outside the inner end portion.
With regard to the standing 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection of
these independent claims, anticipation is established only when a
single prior art reference discloses, expressly or under
principles of inherency, each and every element of a claimed
invention. RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730
F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
According to the examiner, Udagawa meets the foregoing
limitations in claims 1 and 12 because “[i]n figure 6, Udagawa
discloses a gasket as claimed. The gasket has a first metal
plate having a heat preventing portion D10a, a main sealing
portion (D10d, D10b, and the upper portion of the first metal
plate)” (answer, third page).
The appellant, on the other hand, contends that
[i]n the present invention, the heat preventing
portion is formed at the inner end portion of the first
plate, and the main sealing portion is formed by
bending the first metal plate outside the inner end
portion. . . .
In Udagawa, however, the solid portion is formed
of the flange D10b and the core D10d formed at the
inner end portion, and the portion of the upper plate
D10. Also, in Udagawa, the curved portion D10a which
is deemed as the heat preventing portion by the
Examiner is not formed at the inner end portion [brief,
page 7].
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