Appeal No. 1998-3016
Application No. 08/568,344
one of ordinary skill in the art would have viewed the gasket
or packing in Thurman as being a separate member and not as a
metal sheet member coated with rubber.3 Accordingly, since
our review of Thurman does not disclose a flange consisting of
metal sheet coated with rubber as required by claim 1, we will
not sustain the examiner's rejection of claim 1 based on
Thurman.
Accordingly, the decision of the examiner to reject claim
1 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as clearly anticipated by Thurman
is reversed. It also follows that the examiner's rejection of
claims 2, 5 and 9, which are dependent on claim 1, under 35
U.S.C. § 102(b) as clearly anticipated by Thurman is also
reversed.
Turning next to the examiner's rejection of claim 1 as
clearly anticipated by Briggs, it is the examiner's position
that "Briggs teaches a base member (18,62) sealingly connected
to a housing (38,48) via a bent sheet metal flange (54,56,58),
3 Enclosed with this decision is a copy of The Condensed Chemical Dictionary,
ninth edition, page 215, which defines "coating" as a film or layer applied to
a base by, for example, electrolysis, painting, etc. In our view the gasket
or packing of Thurman is not a film or layer applied in a manner so as to be a
coating on the metal flange (17, 18).
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