Appeal No. 1998-0682
Application 08/724,306
Appellants’ invention relates to a method of producing metal sheets having a stepped cross-
section and different wall thicknesses from a hollow tubular profile (claim 4), and to a method of using
extruded profiles producible from a hollow profile (claim 1). Independent claims 1 and 4 are
representative of the subject matter on appeal and a copy of those claims can be found in the Appendix
to appellants’ brief.
The prior art references relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Todd 2,798,604 July 9, 1957
Kennedy et al. (Kennedy) 3,540,117 Nov. 17, 1970
Otani et al. 2 55-88942 July 5, 1980
Claim 1 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Kennedy in view
of Hitachi Cable, while claims 4, 8 and 9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Kennedy in view of Hitachi Cable and Todd.
2A translation of this Japanese language document prepared by the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office is attached to this decision. In the examiner’s answer the examiner has referred to
this document by the name of the assignee “Hitachi Cable.” In the interest of clarity, we will continue to
refer to this document as Hitachi Cable.
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