Appeal No. 2004-0389 Page 4
Application No. 09/853,339
a rise for interconnecting said bottom landing support
to said top landing support wherein said rise includes at
least one module wherein the module comprises a steel
sheet covering an escalator machine, said steel sheet
presenting a continuous planar exterior surface.
We turn our attention first to the examiner’s rejection of claim 1 as being
anticipated by Pallinger. Pallinger discloses an escalator or traveling walkway with
underneath bracing. The escalator comprises transport means in the form of steps
bounded laterally by balustrades 5 each supporting a moving handrail 6. According to
Pallinger (column 2, lines 4-7),
[a] pair of support bodies 7 serves as a support means for
the plates 4 or steps, and has beam lower edges 8 to which
underneath bracing 9 is connected at intervals.
Pallinger also discloses that the escalator or traveling walkway shown in Figure 1 has
one support 15 “at each beam lower edge 8" (column 2, lines 28-29).
Appellants argue on page 7 of their brief that Pallinger teaches the use of
beams, not a steel sheet as called for in appellants’ claim 1. On page 6 of their reply
brief, appellants add that Pallinger’s Figures 1-4 show an exterior cladding 7 which is
mounted above, but does not cover, the escalator support structure and point out that
Pallinger provides no teaching that such cladding is made of steel.
Anticipation is established only when a single prior art reference discloses,
expressly or under the principles of inherency, each and every element of a claimed
invention. RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221
USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984). In other words, there must be no difference between
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