Appeal No. 2003-1279
Application 09/455,621
if rewritten in independent form to include all of the limita-
tions of the base claims and any intervening claims. See Appeal
Brief, Paper No. 10, received May 8, 2002, page 3.
Claim 1 is representative of the subject matter on
appeal and is reproduced below:
1. A fiber optic connector module, comprising:
a ferrule terminated to at least one optical fiber, the
ferrule including a front mating end and a rear end;
a pin keeper engaged with the rear end of the ferrule;
at least one alignment pin extending from the pin
keeper through the ferrule and projecting beyond the front mating
end of the ferrule for operative association with a complementary
connecting device;
a pusher member spaced behind the pin keeper; and
a spring sandwiched between the pusher member and the
pin keeper, the spring having opposite ends fixed to the pusher
member and the pin keeper to hold the entire module together as a
self-contained unit.
The reference relied upon by the examiner is:
Knight 6,085,003 July 4, 2000
(filed July 28, 1998)
GROUNDS OF REJECTION
1. Claims 1 and 4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 102(e) as unpatentable over Knight.
2
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