Appeal No. 1999-0604
Application 08/575,477
treillis [sic: trellis] defining a trough having a
bottom and opposed sides, said plurality of
longitudinal wires including edge longitudinal wires
defining free edges of the opposed sides and bottom
longitudinal wires forming the bottom of the trough,
said bottom longitudinal wires including sidemost
bottom longitudinal wires located adjacent the
respective sides of the trough and intermediate
bottom longitudinal wires disposed between the
sidemost bottom longitudinal wires, at least one of
said intermediate bottom longitudinal wires having a
cross sectional area less than that of the said
sidemost bottom longitudinal wires.
There is no dispute that Simon discloses a cable tray meeting
all of the recited limitations, except for the underlined
portion of the claim. According to appellant, he has
discovered that if, as recited in the underlined portion, the
cross-sectional area (i.e., the diameter) of the longitudinal
wires not at the sides is reduced relative to the diameter of
the sidemost longitudinal wires, the weight and cost of the
tray are reduced without reducing its mechanical strength
(specification, page 1, line 33, to page 2, line 3).
In the Simon patent, there is no disclosure of what the
diameters of the bottom longitudinal wires 8 are, but from the
drawings they all appear to be of the same diameter. At the
upper ends of transverse U-shaped wires 7 Simon discloses a
3
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