Appeal No. 2001-0207 Application No. 09/151,003 fusible part to melt and drop the steel pin into jamming relationship with the keeper to prevent it from being retracted. As conceded by the examiner (see pages 3 and 4 in the answer), Smith does not respond to the limitations in claims 1 and 7 requiring (1) a solenoid and (2) the sliding catch to be “formed in a single member.” The Smith device does not include a solenoid, and its keeper, which corresponds to the sliding catch recited in the claims, is formed of two members, i.e., holder plate 21 and bracket 22. Nonetheless, the examiner concludes that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art “to modify Smith et al. by providing a solenoid so that the exit device may be operated by remote control, as taught by Cross” (answer, page 4), and to form Smith’s holder plate 21 and a bracket 22 as a single member because “forming in one piece an article which has formerly been formed in two pieces and put together involves only routine skill in the art” (answer, page 4). Cross discloses “a panic exit or fire door latch manually unlockable by a pushbar but also electrically unlockable from a remote position” (column 1, lines 10 through 12). The latch 5Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007