Appeal No. 2001-2406
Application 09/307,445
above constitutes a specific structural connection, appellant is
not required to demonstrate any criticality or prove that the
claimed structure is non-obvious over the applied prior art.
As a general rule, ignoring claim recitations when making
prior art rejections is not a good idea. In this case the
examiner should have considered (and should still consider)
whether it would have been obvious to the artisan to modify the
conductive sleeve 19 of Kadowaki so that it is shrink-fitted onto
the insulating core. We note that there is no evidence on this
record which even mentions the use of a shrink-fitted connection.
Therefore, there is no basis on this record for any consideration
of the obviousness of a shrink-fitted connection.
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