Appeal No. 2000-0522
Application No. 08/934,826
The following rejection is before us for review.
Claims 1-6 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Akai.
Reference is made to the brief and reply brief (Paper Nos. 13 and 15) and the final
rejection and answer (Paper Nos. 5 and 14) for the respective positions of the appellant and the
examiner with regard to the merits of this rejection.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to the
appellant's specification and claims, to the applied prior art reference, and to the respective
positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. For the reasons which follow, we
cannot sustain the examiner's rejection.
At the outset, we have considered the appellant's arguments on pages 4-8 of the brief that
Akai's Figure 1, which shows the seals (fused portions 11) diverging outwardly from the bottom to the
top, is not consistent with Figures 2 and 3, which show the seals extending parallel to one another.
However, for the reasons cited on page 4 of the answer, we agree with the examiner that there is no
such inconsistency in these drawings. While the seals (fused portions 11) are parallel to one another
with both the top and the bottom pleat collapsed or with both the bottom pleat expanded and the top
open, these seals will inherently diverge outwardly when the pleat is expanded and the top is sealed.
Moreover, we also note that the appellant's claim 1 does not require that the seals diverge outwardly in
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007