Appeal No. 2002-1589
Application 09/280,180
As noted on page 1 of the specification, appellant’s
invention relates to a bicycle control device which includes a
releasable or break-away attachment for a connecting cable. More
particularly, the control device is constructed with a resilient
portion for deflecting so to release the connecting cable
whenever excessive forces are applied to the cable and thereby
avoid damage to the control device. A copy of independent claims
1 and 23 on appeal may be found in the Appendix to appellant’s
brief.
The prior art references relied upon by the examiner in
rejecting the appealed claims are:
Kund 5,178,033 Jan. 12, 1993
Chou 5,987,709 Nov. 23, 1999
Claims 1 through 6, 12, 18, 20 and 21 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as being anticipated by Kund (Figs. 10-14).1
1 Given that the Kund patent issued more than six years
before appellant’s earliest possible filing date, we are at a
loss to understand why this rejection was made by the examiner
under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) instead of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b).
2
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