Appeal No. 97-0165 Page 6
Application No. 08/222,808
passes, which is all that is required by the instant claim
language. Claim 7 does not preclude the driver from exiting
the truck sometime during the inspection process, as the driver
does in Bermbach.
In our view, the troubling part of the examiner’s
rejection is directed to the claimed “light barrier means.”
While Pantelleria clearly discloses a “light barrier means,” in
the sense of using a light source and photo detector means for
activating an x-ray inspection when an article to be examined
passes by, and this would be applicable to the vehicle
inspection apparatus of Bermbach, claim 7 further requires that
this light barrier means is “for activating said x-ray source
when a cab of the truck has passed the x-ray source.”
The x-ray source in Pantelleria is activated when the beam
of light is interrupted as a result of a container passing
therethrough [column 4, lines 38-46]. There is no teaching or
suggestion, in either Bermbach or Pantelleria, of activating an
x-ray source when an object [a cab of a truck in the claim] has
passed the x-ray source. Of course, one could have placed the
light source and photo detector of Pantelleria in such a
location that the x-ray source was activated only after an
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