Ex parte GLOVER - Page 6




            Appeal No. 1998-2482                                                                              
            Application No. 08/533,429                                                                        


                   With regard to independent claim 9, the top of Hadley’s flexible gasket, shown as          
            element 33 in Figure 3B, is “a main body member” of the gasket system, as claimed.                
                   Claims 2, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 17 and 19 will fall with independent claims 1 and 9 since      
            appellant does not argue the merits of these claims separately.                                   
                   Finally, we turn to the rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103.  We will not sustain these       
            rejections.                                                                                       
                   With regard to claims 3-5, 11-13, 18 and 20-22, the examiner relies on Cantrell for        
            a teaching of a threaded receptacle having a threaded fastener and a boss.   Without even         
            reaching a decision on whether Cantrell, in fact, discloses a limiting means and a boss, as       
            claimed, we will not sustain the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 because we find nothing          
            that would have led the artisan to combine Hadley and Cantrell.  The examiner has                 
            provided no convincing line of reasoning as to why the skilled artisan would have applied         
            the flexible gasket of Hadley in the device of Cantrell, in place of gasket 144 taught by         
            Cantrell.  Moreover, if the gasket of Hadley were to be applied in place of gasket 144 of         
            Cantrell, it is unclear how such a gasket would be placed to ensure that the leg members of       
            the gasket would deflect away from each other when the opposing substrates in Cantrell            
            are drawn together.  It may be that in conforming to the shape of the peripheral walls 134        
            and interior walls [Cantrell-                                                                     




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