Appeal No. 98-2755
Application 08/048,969
We reverse the examiner’s rejection of claims 16
through 18 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Kalikow in view of Herve, for the reasons appearing below.
This panel of the board fully comprehends the exam-
iner’s assessment of the applied patents and the rationale
relied upon for their combination under 35 U.S.C. § 103. In
particular, we certainly appreciate that Herve discloses
(Figs. 1, 3, and 4) interfacing apertures 8 and nuts 4 for
mounting a brake booster to a firewall. The difficulty,
however, that we have with the proposed modification of the
mounting device of Kalikow is that it clearly would have
removed therefrom the consequential structure necessary for
the
achievement of the patentee’s objective, i.e., the wedge-
shaped flange lugs which exactly match wedge-shaped grooves to
best withstand engine vibration (column 3, lines 32 through
36). The importance of the lug and groove arrangement is
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