Appeal No. 2001-1453 Page 6
Application No. 08/990,945
The first of these rejections is that the subject matter recited in claim 1 would have
been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the combined teachings of Robb
and Frantz. Robb discloses a clip intended to be used for securing the turned-over portion
at the top of bed linens at the head end of a bed. It comprises a U-shaped metal spring
clip 14 having a tip 16 of frictional material secured to one end of the clip (Figure 2) or, as
an alternative, layers of frictional material 17 secured to the facing portions of both ends of
the clip (Figure 4). The frictional material “may be of soft vulcanized rubber or of other
frictional material such as suede leather” (page 1, lines 103-105). The examiner admits
that Robb fails to disclose or teach the use of open-cell foam material, but takes the
position that Frantz discloses that such “is an old and well-known engineering material”
and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the Robb clip by
replacing the disclosed frictional material with open-cell foam “so that the clip may be light
weight and may adequately engage the object placed between the clip arms” (Answer,
page 4).
Frantz is directed to contour cushions for supporting a human body or a portion
thereof in devices such as an immobilizing seat or a wheelchair. Each cushion is
described as having a casing 24 which covers an inflatable cell that is encased in an open-
cell high density foam material (columns 4 and 5). The open-cell foam provides the
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