Appeal No. 2000-0531
Application No. 08/782,151
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to a method for fitting a reinforced fire hose to a
coupling, wherein the fire hose inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the coupling.
In particular, after the hose is placed onto the coupling, it is heated so as to shrink until it
engages with the coupling without leaving gaps. An understanding of the invention can be
derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1, which appears in the appendix to the appellant's
brief.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the appealed
claims are:
Benson et al. (Benson) 3,567,259 Mar. 2, 1971
The appellant's admitted prior art as discussed on page 2 of the specification and depicted in
Figure 2 and the admitted prior art as discussed on page 4, lines 10-15, of the specification.
The following rejection is before us for review.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 9, 12 and 13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over the appellant's admitted prior art in view of Benson.
Reference is made to the brief (Paper No. 16) and the answer (Paper No. 18) for the1
respective positions of the appellant and the examiner with regard to the merits of this rejection.
1While the appellant filed a paper on September 8, 1999 (Paper No. 19) entitled "REPLY BRIEF," this
reply brief merely provides updated information with regard to the real party in interest and does not contain any
additional argument against the examiner's rejection.
2
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