Appeal No. 1999-1835
Application No. 08/654,976
or ultimate of obviousness. Structural Rubber Prods. Co. v.
Park Rubber Co., 749 F.2d 707, 716, 223 USPQ 1264, 1271 (Fed.
Cir. 1984).
III. Rejection of claims 5-7 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over the
Combined Teachings of Yamaguchi and Benson
The examiner acknowledges that Yamaguchi does not describe
the first and second sipes as recited in appealed claims 5
through 7. (Examiner's answer, page 9.) To account for these
differences, the examiner relies on Benson. According to the
examiner (id.), "Benson suggests to one of ordinary skill in the
art to use hook shaped slots which have both lateral and
circumferential components for the advantage of reducing tear
out of tread material (loss of tread material between the
slots)." (Id.)
The appellants, on the other hand, argue as follows:
[T]he disclosure of the '599 patent [Benson] that providing
hook shaped slots 10 in continuous rows of ribs 11 to reduce the
tendency for tear out is insufficient to provide the requisite
motivation since the continuous rows of ribs 11 are entirely
different structures, and are subject to different forces and
stresses, than the land portions 12 of the '765 patent
[Yamaguchi].
(Appeal brief, page 26.)
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