Appeal No. 2002-1993 Page 4
Application No. 09/336,648
B2, etc. each wound about a separate roller A1, A2, etc. Each roller is positively rotated
in both directions, with the revolution of successive rollers being so coordinated that
while one curtain is being wound up the next succeeding curtain is lowered and so on
throughout the series in any predetermined order (page 1, lines 104-110). This
coordination is effected by rotation of a cam shaft G having cams thereon for moving
levers F1, F2, etc. on a frame F*, the levers being attached to corresponding tapes e
wound about respective ones of the rollers such that movement of each of the levers by
rotation of the cam shaft in turn causes rotation of the roller about which the tape
attached to the lever being moved is wound, thereby also raising or lowering the curtain
wound about the roller.
Sawyer uses a single motor to successively rotate all of the rollers about which
the curtains are wound and thus lacks a set of motors, each motor of the set being
associated with a respective one of the receiver drums as called for in each of
appellants’ independent claims 1 and 14-16. Thus, each of the examiner’s rejections
rests in part on the examiner’s determination that “[i]t would have been obvious to a
person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of applicant’s invention to modify the
advertising apparatus [of Sawyer] to have separate motors in view of Stadjuhar et al. in
order to provide a means of being able to operate at least some of the posters if a
motor should fail” (answer, page 4 and pages 7-8).
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007