Appeal No. 1999-1531
Application No. 08/675,912
an item supporting means, an item stopping device including a
stop roller disposed in a travel path of items and forming an
abutment to stop items in the advance thereof on the item
supporting means, an item on the item supporting means is
adapted to abut an outer surface of the stop roller with an
abutting force at a location above the rotational axis of a
roller shaft, a spring urging the stop roller into an upper
end position, the spring force being opposed by a component
force of the abutting force and being so dimensioned that the
spring force is overcome by a predetermined magnitude of the
component force for shifting the stop roller into a lower end
position, the force exerting means comprising transport
containers having a leading end wall for contacting the stop
roller to exert the abutting force thereon.
At the outset, we note that in the body of the rejection
(final rejection, page 2) the examiner perceives modifications
that "could" be undertaken. However, 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
expressly requires a patentability assessment of the
differences between the subject matter sought to be patented
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