Appeal No. 2003-1648 Page 4
Application No. 09/648,359
In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner bears the initial burden
of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness. See In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531,
1532, 28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993). A prima facie case of obviousness is
established by presenting evidence that would have led one of ordinary skill in the art to
combine the relevant teachings of the references to arrive at the claimed invention.
See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988) and In re
Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972).
Claims 1, 11 and 21, the only independent claims on appeal, read as follows:
1. A restraint system for a motor vehicle comprising:
a plurality of sensors for sensing vehicle conditions of restraint
deployment thresholds, said sensors including a first sensor for sensing
deceleration from a first location and a second sensor for sensing the
deceleration from a second location;
an electronic controller electrically connected to said first sensor and said
second sensor for determining whether said first sensor and said second sensor
experience sufficient deceleration;
a driver side air bag and a passenger side air bag operatively connected
to said electronic controller for deployment thereby in a first stage if the
deceleration warrants a first stage deployment and in a second stage if the
deceleration warrants a second stage deployment;
a seat position sensor electrically connected to said electronic controller
for sensing whether a driver side seat is rearward of a predetermined proximity
and allowing said electronic controller to deploy the second stage of the driver
side air bag if the driver side seat is rearward of the predetermined proximity;
and
a weight sensor electrically connected to said electronic controller for
sensing whether an occupant is above a weight deployment threshold and
allowing said electronic controller to deploy the first stage of the passenger side
air bag if the weight of the occupant is above the weight deployment threshold.
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