Appeal No. 1999-1485
Application No. 08/317,355
COHEN, Administrative Patent Judge, dissenting.
It appears to me that Birckhead is simply representative
of
what appellant has acknowledged (specification, page 2) as the
conventional gusset plate that joins a pair of abutting wooden
members in the construction art, i.e., a conventional gusset
plate that, in practice, is known to be applied so as to
achieve an even distribution of its area on each of two wooden
members which are joined by the gusset plate, such that equal
areas of the gusset plate are respectively associated with
each of the wooden members about the abutting edges thereof.
On the other hand, the patent to McWilliams is representative
of the knowledge in the construction art of using opposed
notches for alignment purposes relative to a wooden edge
whereby a bracket can be accurately positioned relative to the
edge.
As I see it, one having ordinary skill in the art would
have been motivated to provide, at opposed midpoints of each
of the edges of a conventional (Birckhead) gusset plate, known
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