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
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