Appeal No. 1999-1387
Application No. 08/593,507
According to appellants, the invention is directed to a grid
anode for cathodic protection of a steel reinforced concrete
structure where the anode is formed of multiple valve metal strips
including multiple electric current-carrying metal strips
consisting of a valve metal (Brief, page 6). A copy of
illustrative independent claim 1 is attached as an Appendix to this
decision.
The examiner has relied upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Taki 4,997,492 Mar. 05, 1991
Mussinelli2 (Mussinelli ‘934) 5,062,934 Nov. 05, 1991
Watkins (GB ‘912) 896,912 May 23, 1962
(published British specification)
Appellants rely upon the following references as evidence for
non-obviousness (e.g., see the Brief, pages 9-11):3
Mussinelli (Mussinelli ‘502) 5,104,502 Apr. 14, 1992
Bennett et al. (Bennett ‘961) 5,423,961 Jun. 13, 1995
2The actual name of the patentee for this listed reference
is “Mussinellil.” However, it appears that this is incorrect
(see Mussinelli ‘502 infra). Since appellants and the examiner
both refer to this document as Mussinelli, we adopt this same
nomenclature for uniformity.
3A discussion of the other reference cited by appellants as
evidence of non-obviousness is unnecessary to this decision (see
the Brief, page 11).
2
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