Appeal No. 2001-2192
Application 09/116,906
separator 1, wire mesh contact sheets 2 and 3, and conductive
contacts 4, with or without delay circuit 7, collectively
constitute a pressure sensitive sheet sensor, such sensor is
not associated with a seat pad having a slit of the type
recited in claim 11. In response, the examiner points to
Fontaine’s statement that “contact is sensed between contact
sheets 2 and 3 by the delay circuit 7” (column 2, lines 28 and
29), and urges that “since the middle area was not clearly
defined ‘as to its extent on the seat pad’
that part of the corner area [encompassed by Fontaine’s slot
10] would in fact lie within the ‘middle area’ in its
‘broadest interpretation’” (answer, page 4).
Anticipation is established only when a single prior art
reference discloses, expressly or under principles of
inherency, each and every element of a claimed invention. RCA
Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444,
221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984). In other words, there
must be no difference between the claimed invention and the
reference disclosure, as viewed by a person of ordinary skill
in the field of the invention. Scripps Clinic & Research
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