Ex parte ZEHRUNG - Page 5




          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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