Appeal No. 1998-2204
Application No. 08/470,432
NEW GROUNDS OF REJECTION
Pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b), we enter the following new grounds of rejection of
claims 16-18 and 27.
Claims 16, 18 and 27 are rejected under the judicially created doctrine of double
patenting over claim 4 of the appellants' U.S. Patent No. 5,479,740 in view of Horton and4
Cranston.
Claim 4 of the appellants' patent recites all of the subject matter of claims 16 and 18
except the particular angular range of 3-20 degrees between the axis of the guide means and the
longitudinal axis of the tubular member and the first and second guide rings. To provide an
angle of 15 degrees, which falls within the recited range, between the axis of the guide means
and the longitudinal axis of the tubular member would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art to minimize the line contact with the interior wall of the tubular member while
permitting easy passage of the line into the guide member, as taught by Horton (column 3, lines
25-39). To further provide low friction bushes or rings at the first and second ends of the
guide means to assist free passage of the line, as taught by Cranston (page 2, lines 3-38), would
also have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. In view of the recitation in claim 4
of the appellants' patent that the first and second ends both lie in planes perpendicular to the
This patent issued on Application No. 08/193,647, filed February 7, 1994, the parent of the instant4
application.
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