Appeal No. 98-0336 Application 08/761,014 corresponding to the maximum amount of energy that the spring is able to absorb prior to the compression of the spring, the spring will deflect thereby opening and/or relaxing the valve 12 to release the energy of the fluid pushing on the piston to thereby provide a dampening force to the system which was created by the movement of the piston 3 that is attached to the moving structure to be damped. [Page 4.] This position is also unpersuasive. While Kobori's dampening device remains "hydraulically locked" until a sufficient force P1 is exerted on the valve spool 27 to overcome the bias of spring 28 (see column 6, lines 33 et seq.), there is no means for "determining when a predetermined amount of energy is stored . . . by movement of said structure" (claim 1; emphasis added) or "a sensor coupled to said resettable truss element for determining energy stored in said truss element" (claim 15; emphasis added). The rejections of claims 1-6, 8, 11-13 and 15-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(e) and claims 7, 9, 10 and 14 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) are reversed. REVERSED 6Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007