Appeal No. 97-0997
Application 08/370,851
flat plastic strap (“elongated planar plastic member”) as the
chain 13 of the Freed flapper valve assembly in view of the
disclosure of such a chain (54) by Woolf. We do not regard
Woolf’s disclosure of such a strap as being used in addition
to the normal chain 38 as detracting from the suggestion that
a strap may be used in place of a flapper valve link chain.
On the other hand, we do not consider that the recited
engagement of such a planar strap about the periphery of
Freed’s base plate 10 would have been obvious in view of
Schoepe. Appellant acknowledges at page 8 of the brief that
“pluralities of hobby model pieces are typically engaged
together within large boxes when received by a consumer”, and
Schoepe discloses that two toilet inlet pipe seals 14, 20 may
be molded concentrically as a unit, connected by frangible web
24, in order to reduce manufacturing, inventory and packaging
problems (col. 1, lines 46 to 60). However, while this prior
art would suggest to one of ordinary skill that the flapper 10
and chain 13 of Freed (as a strap) might be molded as two
separable parts of a one-piece molded article, we find no
suggestion that the chain be molded around the periphery of
the flapper base plate, as claimed. Although Schoepe’s seals
3
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Last modified: November 3, 2007