Appeal No. 2003-0220 Page 2
Application No. 09/478,871
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to an inflatable cushion for a vehicle occupant
restraint system. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of
exemplary claim 1, which has been reproduced below.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Wessels 4,603,571 Aug. 5, 1986
Ford et al. (Ford) 5,975,571 Nov. 2, 1999
Iino et al. (Iino) 6,142,520 Nov. 7, 2000
(filed Aug. 11, 1997)
Claims 1-3, 7-11 and 17-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over lino in view of Wessels.
Claims 4-6, 12-16 and 21-25 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over lino in view of Wessels and Ford.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellant regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the Answer
(Paper No. 13) for the examiner's complete reasoning in support of the rejections, and
to the Brief (Paper No. 12) and Reply Brief (Paper No. 14) for the appellant's arguments
thereagainst.
OPINION
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