Appeal No. 97-4212
Application No. 08/630,031
automobile bumpers owing to its high impact absorption
(translation, page 2). The Enomoto bumper is a beam of hollow
box construction within which is installed a plurality of
laterally oriented internal panel walls 2 that provide “high
impact absorption” (translation, page 7). Enomoto does not
disclose or teach installing a reinforcing plate behind the
beam.
The automobile bumper assembly disclosed in Killea
comprises a channel beam 11 that has an essentially straight
center section flanked by curved end sections. Beam 11 is
mounted to the vehicle by means of a pair of braces 19 that
are fixedly attached to the end sections. A “stabilizer bar”
12 is mounted behind the beam, and is attached to the vehicle
through a pair of impact cylinders 16, which are bolted to bar
12. There is no disclosure that bar 12 is attached to the
beam; the extent of the teaching is that it is “adjacent” to
the rear surface thereof (column 1, line 36). The examiner
opines, however, that these two elements must be attached
together, on the theory that not to do so would adversely
affect the operation and the safety of the impact absorbing
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Last modified: November 3, 2007