Appeal No. 2003-1531 Page 2
Application No. 09/772,274
The appellant's invention relates to a method for alerting a drowsy driver by
lowering the temperature in the vehicle cab or pumping oxygen into the vehicle cab
when it is determined that the driver is drowsy (specification, pages 1 and 4 to 5). A
copy of the claims under appeal is set forth in the appendix to the appellant's brief.
The prior art
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Kawakami et al. (Kawakami) 5,488,353 Jan. 30, 1996
Saitoh et al. (Saitoh) 5,813,989 Sep. 29, 1998
Brownlee 5,910,773 Jun. 8, 1999
The rejections
Claims 19 to 21 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable
over Kawakami in view of Saitoh.
Claims 22 to 24 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable
over Kawakami in view of Brownlee.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellant regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the answer
(Paper No. 11, mailed Jul. 30, 2002) for the examiner's complete reasoning in support
of the rejections, and to the brief (Paper No. 10, filed May 21, 2002) and reply brief
(Paper No. 12, filed Aug. 29, 2002) for the appellant's arguments thereagainst.
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