Appeal No. 2001-1808
Application 08/987,487
6). Kuoksa also fails to disclose a packing step as recited
in claim 1. Here again, the reference lacks any support for
the examiner’s determination that “[w]hen the insertion device
[15] is removed, the ground would return to its natural state
and would pack the loose material around the elongated rope”
(answer, page 6).
Claim 5 recites a marking rope comprising (1) a flexible
line having a “diameter” and (2) an anchor element
“concentrically mounted” on one end of the line and having a
“diameter greater” than the diameter of the line. The
examiner appears to have taken the alternative positions that
the recitation of the line is met by one of Kuoksa’s strips 11
(see pages 3 and 4 in the answer) or by all of the strips 11
arranged
as shown in Figure 4 (see pages 8 and 9 in the answer). The
former view is unsound because each strip 11 does not have a
diameter and the anchor element (pointed foot 9) is not
concentrically mounted relative thereto. The latter view is
unsound because the flexible strips 11, connected only at one
end through the central disc 12, do not reasonably constitute
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