Appeal No. 2001-1610
Application No. 09/028,449
a transfer device cover which covers the transfer device,
the cover including a downstream portion on which the sheet is
fed from the transfer device; and
a plurality of first guide members disposed at the
downstream portion of the transfer device cover.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Tsuchiya et al. (Tsuchiya) 5,477,314 Dec. 19, 1995
Asada et al. (Asada) 5,584,475 Dec. 17, 1996
Claims 2 through 32 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Asada in view of Tsuchiya.
Reference is made to the Examiner's Answer (Paper No. 14,
mailed September 12, 2000) for the examiner's complete reasoning
in support of the rejections, and to appellant's Brief (Paper No.
13, filed June 26, 2000) and Reply Brief (Paper No. 16, filed
November 13, 2000) for appellant's arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
We have carefully considered the claims, the applied prior
art references, and the respective positions articulated by
appellant and the examiner. As a consequence of our review, we
will reverse the obviousness rejection of claims 2 through 32.
We turn first to independent claim 26, which appears to be
the broadest claim. Claim 26 requires, in pertinent part, first
guide members "disposed at the downstream portion of the transfer
device cover." The examiner (Answer, pages 3-4) refers to the
2
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