Appeal No. 1999-2446 Page 26
Application No. 08/705,592
clearly large wood fragments, branches, etc. of Scott with
hammer milled wood fragments. Since the examiner has not10
established that the subject matter of claim 19 would have
been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the decision of the
examiner to reject claim 19 and claim 20 dependent thereon
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Scott is
reversed.
Claim 21
It is our opinion that the subject matter of method claim
21 is inherently met by Scott. In addition to the reasons set
forth above with respect to parent claim 17, it is our
determination that the claimed step of placing a plurality of
contiguous containers on the surface in the region of run-off
is met by Scott's disclosure that his mats are for use in the
revetment of river banks and the like. In this regard, it is
our opinion that Scott's mats must be contiguous to each other
if the mats are to function as Scott intends. Thus, the
10The mere fact that hammer milled wood fragments existed
in the prior art would not have by itself made it obvious to
have substituted such hammer milled wood fragments for Scott's
wood fragments.
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