Appeal No. 2001-2589 Page 9
Application No. 09/072,911
considered to be a mensuration device, the “plurality of visual radial indications”
required by claim 1 is not disclosed or taught.
In the specification, the appellants have described their invention as relating to
the cutting of sheet material such as paper and cloth to a desired depth and at a
desired angle. The result of the shortcomings in Rotax is that, as is argued by the
appellants on pages 9 and 10 of the Substitute Brief and pages 3 and 4 of the Reply
Brief, this reference does not recognize the problem solved by the appellants’ invention
and does not provide structure that is capable of accomplishing the tasks to which the
invention is directed.
Herman is directed to scissors which, for purposes of cutting hair at a desired
angle to the horizontal, is provided with a gravity operated angle indicator in a housing
(14) attached to one of the handle portions. Fluid in a U-shaped tube indicates the
vertical orientation of the housing and, owing to the visible radial indications on the
indicator, the scissors can be aligned to establish the desired hair cutting angle. To the
extent it might be contended that the artisan would not, on the basis of common
knowledge and common sense in the art, have recognized the advantage of providing a
device used for making cuts with a visible indication of the angle to which the device is
oriented with respect to the article being cut in order to insure that the angle of the cut is
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