Appeal No. 1999-2114
Application 08/821,711
together. However, claims 13 and 20 are independent claims,
wherein claim 16 depends from 13 and claim 21 depends from 20.
For simplicity, we will discuss the rejections with respect to
independent claims 13 and 20 and then discuss the issues per-
taining to the rejected dependent claims therefrom. As
indicated on page 3 of appellant’s brief, dependent claims 14,
15, 17, 18 and 19 will stand and fall with claim 13.
Turning first to the examiner’s rejection of claim
13 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by BPS ‘215.
Appellant has presented arguments on pages 4 through 6 of the
brief and pages 1 and 2 of the reply brief which we find
persuasive.
Claim 13 requires that “the force” against the
particulate material be maintained while the gate is slid
across the upper surface of the block. This “force” refers
back to the “sufficient force” applied to compress the
material into a block. The British reference teaches that a
precompression of a blank is first performed between upper
5
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