Appeal No. 2002-0670
Application 09/416,547
Note for claims 14 through 19 that the guide in Juvet is a
pin 37 with head 38 to prevent detachment of the pin from the
casing. Note that this pin can be considered a post and is
substantially rounded and substantially circular. The pin 37 can
be said to be inserted in the hole formed by the rolled sheet 36.
Turning to a consideration of Steadman, Steadman discloses a
guide 8 with a guide channel 10 and a retention means 12, 13
thereon. Note that the retention means 12, 13 has a spring bias,
and pin 13 engages hole 9 in the guide 8. The crosshatching in
Steadman’s figures indicates that the material of Steadman is
metallic. Accordingly, it is our finding under the principle of
inherency that Steadman anticipates claims 1 through 3, 6, 7, 23
through 25, 28 and 29.
In essence, we agree with the examiner that the two
references cited anticipate the claimed subject matter. However,
during prosecution of the application, the appellant repeatedly
called on the examiner to explain how the references anticipated
appellant’s claimed subject matter. We note that even in the
examiner’s answer, the examiner did not state that he was relying
on the inherent properties of Juvet and Steadman. The closest
the examiner went was to state in one sentence that as long as a
disclosed structure is capable of providing the claimed function,
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