Appeal No. 2002-1058
Application 09/228,856
54. The major knife hub also includes a plurality of suction
cups 68 for grasping and carrying the individual pouches and
releasing them at a predetermined number of drop off points onto
a product conveyor 44. The product conveyor may take the form of
a direct drop bucket conveyor which runs perpendicular to the
axis of the major knife hub (see column 2, line 66, through
column 3, line 5; column 6, lines 18 through 24; and Figures 7A-
7D and 10A-10D).
Again allowing that Scarpa lacks response to the above noted
limitations in claim 1, the examiner relies on Dieterlen to
conclude that it would have been obvious at the time the
invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art
“to include the direct drop bucket conveyor as taught by
Dieterlen in the apparatus of Scarpa et al. to transfer pouches
in stacks” (answer, page 6).
In short, even if Dieterlen would have suggested the use of
a direct drop bucket conveyor extending in a direction
perpendicular to Scarpa’s knife axis, there is simply nothing in
the collective teachings of these references which also would
have suggested the inclusion of at least two conveyors in the
Scarpa apparatus as required by claim 1.
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