Ex Parte BELANGER et al - Page 3




          Appeal No. 2002-1954                                                        
          Application No. 09/458,926                                                  

               Claims 3 through 5, 7 through 16, 18 through 26, 28 through            
          34 and 36 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being                  
          unpatentable over Bohannan.                                                 
               Claims 6, 17, 27 and 35 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.                 
          § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Bohannan in view of Baum.               
               Attention is directed to the appellants’ brief (Paper No.              
          10) and to the final rejection and examiner’s answer (Paper Nos.            
          8 and 11) for the respective positions of the appellants and the            
          examiner regarding the merits of these rejections.1                         


                                     DISCUSSION                                       
          I. The 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection                                         
               Anticipation is established only when a single prior art               
          reference discloses, expressly or under principles of inherency,            
          each and every element of a claimed invention.  RCA Corp. v.                
          Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ              
          385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984).                                                  
               Bohannan discloses a baseball bat 2 having a neck portion 9,           
          a body portion 11, a knob 40 and a longitudinal axis 10.                    
          Structurally, the bat consists of a filling or core of closed               

               1 As recognized by the appellants (see pages 3 and 8 in the            
          brief), the examiner’s statements of the third rejection (see               
          page 3 in both the final rejection and answer) should have                  
          referred to claim 35 instead of claim 25.                                   
                                          3                                           





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007