Appeal No. 2003-0651 Page 2
Application No. 09/348,761
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to a mandrel for forming a guide tube of a
nuclear reactor fuel assembly (specification, page 1). A copy of the claims under
appeal is set forth in the appendix to the appellants’ brief.
The examiner relied upon the following prior art references in rejecting the
appealed claims:
Delans 3,610,012 Oct. 5, 1971
Druyan et al. (Druyan) 710692 Jan. 28, 19801
(Soviet Union patent specification)
The following is the sole rejection before us for review.2
Claims 13 and 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Delans in view of Druyan.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellants regarding the above-noted rejection, we make reference to the answer
(Paper No. 29) for the examiner's complete reasoning in support of the rejection and to
the brief and reply brief (Paper Nos. 28 and 30) for the appellants’ arguments
thereagainst.
1 We derive our understanding of this reference from the English language translation appended
to appellants’ brief.
2 The rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112 have been withdrawn (see Paper No. 25).
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007