Appeal No. 2003-0131
Application 09/533,060
present case, the combined teachings of Mueller and Hilker
provide no support for the examiner’s implication that a boss
with a flat or planar mounting surface as in Hilker would add to
the alignment accuracy afforded by the purported threaded
connection between Mueller’s sensor at 206 and the “stamped”
cover pan to which it is mounted. As the combined teachings of
Mueller and Hilker offer no other incentive to provide a stamped
cover plate with a boss having a generally planar mounting
surface for aligning and mounting a sensor with the sensor being
adjustably coupled to the cover pan as recited in claims 1 and
10, it is evident that the only suggestion for combining these
references in the manner proposed by the examiner stems from
hindsight knowledge impermissibly derived from the appellants’
disclosure.
Accordingly, we shall not sustain the standing 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) rejection of claims 1 and 10 as being unpatentable over
Mueller in view of Hilker.
As Stephanus, Platt and/or Bendix do not cure the foregoing
flaw in the Mueller-Hilker combination relative to the subject
matter recited in independent claims 1 and 10, we also shall not
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