Appeal No. 2003-0417
Application 09/080,207
passenger, includes an elongate neck portion 130 and a body
portion 140 extending therefrom at an angle of from about 30° to
70°. When inflated, the neck portion extends forward at an angle
of about 65° above the horizontal and at an angle of about 3°
outward from the front-to-back axis of the vehicle. During
inflation, the air bag temporarily deploys in a curvilinear
rainbow pattern due to its configuration and the manner in which
it is folded within the housing (see Figure 10, and column 6,
line 57, through column 7, line 55).
In proposing to combine Heinz and Wipasuramonton to reject
claims 23 and 26, the examiner concludes that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
to modify Heinz to mount the air bag at different
angles to account for various forces and moments on the
air bag when being inflated, as taught by
Wipasuramonton et al., in order to have the air bag
“lie adjacent to the head and neck of an upright seated
occupant” (Wipasuramonton et al., col. 8, line 3) when
inflated, and thus serve its intended purpose of
protecting the occupant [final rejection, page 3].
Neither Heinz nor Wipasuramonton, however, provides any
indication that the air bag disclosed therein will fail to assume
an ideal protective position in its inflated operating condition.
While recognizing that air bag 90 will inflate in a curvilinear
manner due to its configuration and manner of folding,
Wipasuramonton characterizes the change in inflation direction as
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