Appeal No. 1998-2598
Application No. 08/549,078
BACKGROUND
The examiner relies on the following U.S. patents:
Widdoes, Jr. (Widdoes) 4,590,581 May 20, 1986
Butts et al. (Butts ‘231) 5,452,231 Sep. 19, 1995
Claims 1-12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Butts ‘231 in view of Widdoes.
We refer to the Final Rejection (mailed Aug. 23, 1996) and the Examiner's Answer
(mailed Apr. 22, 1997) for a statement of the examiner's position and to the Brief (filed
Jan. 21, 1997) and the Reply Brief (filed June 18, 1997) for appellant’s position with
respect to the claims which stand rejected.
The examiner has applied the teachings of Butts ‘231 in view of Widdoes against
appellant’s claims. Appellant submits arguments on pages 20 through 56 of the Brief
against the combination that has been proposed. Appellant submits separate arguments
on pages 10 through 19 of the Brief with respect to why Butts ‘231 should not be
considered prior art.
The instant application was filed on October 27, 1995. According to appellant, as
set forth on page 1 of the Brief, the instant application is a continuation of application
08/173,730, filed Dec. 22, 1993, which in turn is a continuation of application 07/684,539,
filed April 11, 1991. The effective filing date of the instant application is thus taken to be
April 11, 1991.
-2-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007