Appeal No. 98-0009
Application No. 08/538,414
and to cut these members into shorter lengths. Nonetheless,
the structure of its cutter has much in common with the
appellant’s device. In the embodiment of Figures 7 and 9,
LaBounty discloses a pair of plates (127 & 128) pivotally
mounted in parallel spaced relation and attached together by
an end plate (130). Another plate (114) is pivotally mounted
for movement in the space between the two parallel plates.
However, unlike the claimed invention, there is no cutting
edge on end plate 130 or on plate 114, and therefore there is
no cutting edge on the end of plate 114 to “matingly engage”
the cutting edge of end plate 130, as is required by claim 1.
This is clear from the description of the LaBounty invention,
and is graphically illustrated in Figures 9 and 11. In
LaBounty, all of the cutting edges are located on the sides of
the various plates, and thus the LaBounty apparatus cuts in
the same fashion as a conventional pair of scissors.
Therefore, even if one were to concede, arguendo, that it
would have been obvious to combine the teachings of the two
references, the result would not have been the claimed
structure. From our perspective, however, one of ordinary
skill in the art would not have been motivated to combine the
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