Appeal No. 2002-1191
Application No. 09/101,175
CITED PRIOR ART
As evidence of unpatentability, the Examiner relies on the following references:
Furutani et al. (Furutani) 4,272,349 Jun. 09, 1981
Holfelder et al (Holfelder) 4,502,939 Mar. 05, 1985
Murase et al. (Murase) 5,130,002 Jul. 14, 1992
Mase et al. (Mase) 5,169,513 Dec. 08, 1992
Friese et al. (Friese) 5,314,604 May 24, 1994
Makino et al. (Makino) 5,676,811 Oct. 14, 1997
(filed Oct. 24, 1995)
The Examiner has rejected claims 21 to 24, 27 to 29, 32, 33, 35, 37 and 40 to 44 as
unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious over the combination of Makino and
Furutani; claims 30 and 34 as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious over the
combination of Makino, Furutani and either Holfelder or Friese;3 and claim 31 as
unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious over the combination of Makino,
Furutani, Murase and/or Mase.4 (Answer, pp. 3 to 6).
3 The Examiner appears to have withdrawn the Kojima reference, U.S. Patent 6,007,688,
from this rejection. The Kojima reference was included in the statement of the rejection
appearing in the Final Rejection.
4 The Examiner has withdrawn the rejection of claim 33 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph. (Answer, p. 2).
3
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