Appeal No. 1999-0705 Page 4
Application No. 08/129,615
require "web sides meeting in a common line forming a generally inverted, smoothly contoured
and curved, U-shaped groove tile cut line. " This feature of the claims is best illustrated in the2
appellants' Figure 4, wherein the adjacent sides of parallel webs (63, 64) are shown converging
toward one another to a juncture where they form a common cut line (90 - shown in Figure 2),
at the bottom surface of the tile, through which a tile cut plane may pass (see appellants'
specification, page 8).
Matthews, the primary reference relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the claims,
discloses a roof tile having, on the bottom surface thereof, a plurality of ribs (30, 31, 32, 33)
spaced between recesses (25, 26, 27, 28, 29). The examiner takes the position that the webs
(ribs 31, 32), or sides thereof, "converge to a common line at (27) in the claimed inverted,
smoothly contoured and curved, U-shaped manner" (answer, page 5). While it may be true
that the recess (27) formed between the ribs (31, 32) of Matthews is a "generally inverted,
smoothly contoured and curved, U-shaped groove" as recited in the claims, the ribs (31, 32),
or sides thereof cannot reasonably be construed as "meeting in a common line" as also called
for in independent claims 1, 15, 17, 25, 29, 30 and 35. As best seen in Figures 7 and 8 of
Matthews, the sides of the ribs (31, 32) each extend from the peak of the rib to the base of the
recess (27). However, the adjacent sides of the ribs meet the base of the recess at locations
which are spaced from one another such that the webs do not meet in a common line.
2Claim 35 omits "a" before "generally".
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