Appeal No. 96-4165
Application No. 08/333,292
the invention, to modify the step of feeding the panel insert
as taught by De Pass in view of Hatakeyama '092 to punch the
insert from a continuous strip at the molding station rather
than supplying discrete, pre-punched inserts to the mold
assembly, since such would avoid the occurrence of non-uniform
feed of the inserts to the mold cavity" (answer, page 4).
We cannot subscribe to the examiner's position regarding
the combined references teachings as reproduced above. In our
view, De Pass describes a molding process and device that
explicitly relies on the use of sequentially fed blanks of
material for forming composite container lids such as paper
and plastic container lids (De Pass, columns 1-3) and does not
describe any problems with the feeding of preformed blanks
that would suggest the claimed process including the shearing
step. Moreover, while Hatakeyama teaches use of a punch for
punching out (shearing) an ornamental plate from a continuous
strip of material for a plastic body, such as a cap for a
bottle, the examiner has not identified any suggestion in the
applied prior art for the use of such a technique for forming
the composite container lids of De Pass especially in light of
the sequential blank feed method taught by De Pass. In this
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007