Appeal No. 2002-1589
Application 09/280,180
should excessive tension be exerted on the pull chain, thereby
providing the safety feature that is the key concept in all of
the embodiments of Chou’s pull chain connector.
According to the examiner, it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellant’s invention
to modify the cable terminating structure of the gear display
device in Kund (Figs. 6-9) with the re-attachable safety cable
structure of Chou
in order to provide a safety feature in the gear indicating
apparatus wherein the connection between the cable end and
the member is severed when a overpowering force is applied
on the cable coupling member by the cable end, rather than
permanently damaging the internal structure of the gear
indicating apparatus. (final rejection, page 8)
Like appellant (brief, page 9), we find no teaching,
suggestion, or incentive in the applied references which would
have led one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the gear
indicating apparatus of Kund and the blind pull chain safety
connector of Chou in the manner posited by the examiner. Since
we are of the view that the examiner's combination of Kund and
Chou is based on a hindsight reconstruction using appellant’s own
disclosure as a blueprint for combining the clearly disparate
9
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007