Ex Parte RICHARDS - Page 3




                Appeal No. 2002-0072                                                                           Page 3                   
                Application No. 08/956,912                                                                                              


                                                              OPINION                                                                   
                        In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to                                 
                the appellant's specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the                               
                respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner.  As a consequence                                   
                of our review, we make the determinations which follow.                                                                 
                                                               Claim 1                                                                  
                                A device for forming a longitudinal fold in signatures being                                            
                        conveyed by a conveyor system, comprising:                                                                      
                                a delay mechanism selectively processing individual signatures                                          
                        from a stream of signatures to form at least one signature grouping,                                            
                                a folding blade disposed downstream of the delay mechanism and                                          
                        parallel to a direction of forward travel of the at least one signature                                         
                        grouping; and                                                                                                   
                                a folding mechanism disposed below the folding blade, the folding                                       
                        mechanism receiving each signature of the at least one signature                                                
                        grouping and longitudinally folding all the signatures of the at least one                                      
                        signature grouping simultaneously, wherein the folding blade is driven                                          
                        between a first position and a second position, the folding blade in the                                        
                        second position urging the signatures of the at least one signature                                             
                        grouping toward the folding mechanism.                                                                          
                                                The Rejection Under Section 102                                                         
                        Independent claim 1 and dependent claims 2, 7 and 8 stand rejected as being                                     
                anticipated by Kobler.  Of course, anticipation is established only when a single prior art                             
                reference discloses, either expressly or under the principles of inherency, each and                                    









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