Appeal No. 1999-0432
Application No. 08/331,799
that bus bars 114 can be mounted thereon (Fig. 12). Id. at 13-14. Our interpretation of the
section of page 13 of Sharp that refers to stripping insulation of the conductors, in light of
Sharp's disclosure as a whole, merely describes stripping insulation from the portion of the
conductors which are to connect with bus bars 114. The bare portion of the conductors
would not contact mounting member 84.
Even if housing 22 were constructed of a conductor, rather than plastic, such that
the housing could be "conductively coupled" to the bus bars, Sharp's electrical load center
would not serve its designed function in distributing voltages (see, e.g., id. at 14) if bare
conductors contacted the housing. If mounting member 84 were electrically conductive,
bare conductors placed in slots 86 would result in all the conductors being placed at the
same potential. Moreover, housing 22 appears to be designed as an insulator; if the
housing were at the same potential as any conductors contacting the housing, a person
contacting the housing would be exposed to the voltage of the conductors.
We therefore cannot sustain the section 102 rejection of claim 1. Nor can we
sustain the rejection of claims 2 and 9, depending from claim 1. Moreover, we do not find
any suggestion to effect any conductive coupling between Sharp's housing 22 and the bus
bars.
Finally, since the section 103 rejection of claims 4, 5, 6, 14-18, and 20-26 fails at
least to remedy the deficiency of Sharp with respect to base claim 1, we do not sustain the
rejection of those dependent claims.
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