Appeal No. 2003-1857 Page 2
Application No. 09/799,350
(specification, page 1). A copy of the claims under appeal is set forth in the appendix to
the appellant’s brief.
The examiner relied upon the following prior art reference in rejecting the
appealed claims:
Swick et al. (Swick) 4,655,000 Apr. 7, 1987
Claims 1-11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Swick.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellant regarding the above-noted rejection, we make reference to the final
rejection and answer (Paper Nos. 9 and 12) for the examiner's complete reasoning in
support of the rejection and to the brief and reply brief (Paper Nos. 11 and 13) for the
appellant’s arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellant's specification and claims, to the applied Swick patent, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
Independent claim 1 recites a fastener comprising a longitudinal flexible member
having first and second ends connected to first and second hook portions, wherein the
first and second hook portions are “mirror images of each other but rotated 180o such
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