Ex Parte JOHNSON - Page 16




                 Interference No. 104,316                                                                                                              
                 Sauer Inc. v. Kanzaki Kokyukoki Mfg. Co., Ltd.                                                                                        

                         Two surfaces cannot form a right angle relative to each other unless they intersect over at                                   
                 least a line segment. Here, as is designated by Sauer in Exhibit 2226, the first surface of the first                                 
                 leg and the first surface of the second leg intersect, if at all, at most only at a point. It is evident                              
                 from the upper right hand figure in Exhibit 2226 that the first surface 72 of the first leg 74 and                                    
                 the first surface (on the bottom and hidden from view) of the second leg are not sufficiently                                         
                 related in positioning to be meaningfully characterized as having the first surface of the second                                     
                 leg extending at right angles away from the first surface of the first leg. The most that can be                                      
                 said, if at all, is that an outside edge of the first surface of the second leg extends at right angles                               
                 away from an outside edge of the first surface of the first leg, and that is not sufficient, even                                     
                 under a broadest reasonable interpretation, to say that the first "surface" of the second leg                                         
                 extends at right angles away form the first "surface" of the first leg.                                                               
                         Note that the "right angle" writing placed on the figure by Sauer and referring to the                                        
                 bottom or first surface 73a of the second leg 75 and the first surface 72 of the first leg 74 actually                                
                 shows a right angle only between the edges of the two surfaces rather than to the two surfaces                                        
                 themselves as it should if the figure satisfies the corresponding feature of the count. An edge, of                                   
                 course, does not qualify as a surface.                                                                                                
                         Sauer in its brief offers no explanation whatsoever as to why it is that any figure in                                        
                 Exhibit 2226 should be read as revealing that the first surface of the second leg extends at right                                    
                 angles away from the first surface of the second leg. We cannot locate even an assertion in                                           
                 Sauer's brief to the effect that in the annotated figures of Exhibit 2226 the first surface of the                                    

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