Appeal No. 2002-1898
Application 09/567,392
DISCUSSION
I. The 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection
Thatcher discloses “a soft, comfortable backpack that
supports the pack in the comfortable lumbar region of the back,
which allows pivotal body motion at hips and shoulders and allows
complete adjustability of load location and shoulder harness
attachments” (column 2, lines 6 through 10). As described by
Thatcher,
[t]he backpack [10] of the present invention generally
stated comprises a nylon cloth body [12] having a
plurality of compartments, including a main compartment
[70] accessible by a top zipper [72], two insulated
side compartment bottle holsters [28], a triangular
zipper pocket [78] at a center portion of the pack,
and, on larger models, a gussetted [sic] zipper pocket
[90] below the triangular pocket, a shoulder harness
[14], and a hip belt [16].
A shoulder harness [14] attaches pivotally to the
body within a slot [20] between a back pad [18] and the
body. It ca[n] be adjusted up or down on a pivot
buckle [112], thereby adapting to different body
lengths. The shoulder harness also has adjustable and
padded shoulder straps [30] that can also be shortened
or lengthened. The shoulder straps are maintained on
the shoulders by a shoulder blade strap [36] on the
back and a sternum strap [34] on the chest. The front
portion of the straps have a diagonally fixed nylon
mesh piece [40] on each strap that has a buckle [44]
and a mesh piece strap [42] attached to the pack body
adjacent the bottle holsters at the sides.
A hip belt [16] and attached hip pad [26] are
inserted in a slot between the body and a lumbar pad
[22] to support the bulk of the pack weight [column 2,
lines 16 through 40].
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