Appeal No. 2002-1620 Page 2
Application No. 09/504,416
BACKGROUND
The appellants' invention relates to a pedal assembly, such as a brake pedal
assembly, that is releasable from an operative condition upon imposition of a frontal
load to an automotive vehicle (specification, p. 1). A copy of the claims under appeal is
set forth in the appendix to the appellants' brief.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Gautier et al. (Gautier) 5,737,919 Apr. 14, 1998
Bauer et al. (Bauer) 5,927,821 July 27, 1999
Claims 1 to 5, 8 to 13 and 16 to 19 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as
being anticipated by Bauer.
Claims 6, 7, 14, 15 and 20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Bauer in view of Gautier.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellants regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the final
rejection (Paper No. 5, mailed June 11, 2001) and the answer (Paper No. 8, mailed
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