Appeal No. 97-4241
Application No. 08/183,066
British reference in view of Cannon and Balicki. It is the
examiner’s position that the British reference teaches all of
the structure required by claims 1 and 23 except for elastic
sheet and the releasable edge clamps, but that the addition of
these features to the primary reference would have been
obvious in view of the teachings of the two secondary
references. We do not agree. Our rationale for arriving at
this conclusion follows.
The British reference is directed to providing an
improvement in awnings and tent roofs in which drainage is
provided for rainwater that ordinarily would collect thereon.
It discloses a sheet (1) that is provided with a plurality of
openings (5). The sheet is made of canvas so that it shows “a
considerable rigidity and, therefore, resistance to
collapsing, fluttering and oscillating under the action of
wind” (page 2, lines 6-11). Attached to the sheet at each
opening is a downwardly oriented pipe made of material that is
“highly elastic” (page 1, line 60). The sheet is supported at
its edge by a plurality of poles (2, 4). Once the awning is
erected, the elastic pipes are tensioned to the extent that a
funnel-like depression (b) is formed in the sheet at each
5
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