Appeal No. 1999-2779
Application No. 08/859,763
Claim 2 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Scheifel in view of Steer.
OPINION
We have carefully reviewed the rejections on appeal in
light of the arguments of the appellants and the examiner. As
a result of this review, we have determined that the applied
prior art does not establish a prima facie case of obviousness
with respect to the claimed subject matter on appeal.
Therefore, the rejections of all claims on appeal are
reversed. Our reasons follow.
It is our finding that the Scheifel reference discloses a
port provided with a flange which is saddle shaped and
partially surrounds the lower portion of the flexible plastic
bag. As can be seen in Figure 1, the distance the flange
extends upwardly from the port member is not nearly the same
distance as the length of the ports.
The examiner has held that the length of the flaps being
greater than the length of the port is insufficient to be
patentably distinguishing over the Scheifel prior art. We
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