Appeal No. 1999-1825
Application 08/799,258
The invention relates to a “lightweight and portable
system for expediting the excavating of a military fighting
position or foxhole” (specification, page 1). Claim 19 is
illustrative and read as follows:
19. A compact, lightweight kit for the preparation of a
two-man fighting position comprising in combination:
(a) a bucket-type, material retention auger system
including a hollow material-retention bit and a plurality of
handle extensions capable of being quickly assembled to bore
holes in the earth;
(b) a plurality of explosive charges stored in containers
that fit into holes bored by the auger system wherein the
explosive charge containers nest within the hollow material-
retention auger bit for storage and transportation;
(c) detonation means for connecting to each of said
containers and remotely detonating the charges in each of said
containers under control of a user; and
(d) a lightweight carrying pack for containing elements
(a)-(c) in compact form.
The items relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Walker et al. (Walker) 5,014,623 May 14,
1991
Clements 5,275,245 Jan. 4,
1994
The admissions in the appellants’ specification (see, for
example, pages 2, 3, 8 and 9) concerning conventional binary
explosives and initiation systems for fusing and detonating
explosives (the admitted prior art).
Claims 2, 5, 8, 10, 13 and 19 through 28 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Clements in
2
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