Appeal No. 1998-2415 Page 6
Application No. 08/751,798
McBrady's blade, which comprises one flat side (12) and three contiguous and successive beveled
surfaces (14, 16, 18) extending from the extremity of the flat side, achieves both smooth severing of
each slice and accurate lay-down of each slice. The angle (A) between the first beveled surface (14)
o o o
and the flat side (12) "should be between about 27 -33 and is preferably 30 "; the angle (B) of the
second beveled surface (16) relative to an imaginary plane (P) parallel to the flat side (12) should be
o o o
between about 12 -18 , preferably 15 , and the angle (C) of the third beveled surface (18) relative to
o o o
the imaginary plane (P) should be between about 5 and 11 , preferably 8 (column 2, lines 34-44) .
McBrady discloses that it is essential that the afore-mentioned angles fall within the stated ranges
(column 2, lines 33-34).
The examiner (final rejection, page 4) asserts that it would have been obvious to provide a
blade on the Scheflow rotary slicer having, inter alia, a top flat surface and a first bevel surface
extending from the peripheral cutting edge of the blade defining, relative to the top flat surface, a
o o o o o
primary angle of between about 35 and about 60 , or between about 47 and about 55 or about 50
± 0.5 in order to smoothly sever and accurately lay each slice as taught by McBrady. Further,o
according to the examiner, it would have been obvious to slice "the food sticks of luncheon meat as
specifically recited in the claims since the modified apparatus would perform equally well on such similar
food sticks" (final rejection, page 6).
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