Appeal No. 2003-1447
Application No. 09/689,720
3. A bracket or block supporting a balcony or cornice. 3
The appellant urges that a strict engineering definition of
cantilever must be utilized - in that one end must be affixed in
six degrees of freedom and one end must be free in six degrees of
freedom. Certainly, we agree that a cantilever needs be fixed at
one end.
We also agree with the appellants that Takagi’s structure 27
is not a cantilever. First, it is not fixed in any sense (it has
a range of motion along arrows AB and CD) and is not supported on
one end.
If structure 27 is not a cantilever, then this claim element
has not been shown to be present in the prior art. Anticipation
under 35 U.S.C. Section 102 requires that "each and every element
as set forth in the claim is found, either expressly or inherently
described, in a single prior art reference." Verdegaal Bros.,
Inc. v. Union Oil Co., 814 F.2d 628, 631, 2 U.S.P.Q.2d 1051, 1053
(Fed. Cir. 1987).
Consequently, we reverse this rejection.
3Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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