Appeal No. 2004-0389 Page 5
Application No. 09/853,339
the claimed invention and the reference disclosure, as viewed by a person of ordinary
skill in the field of the invention. Scripps Clinic & Research Found. v. Genentech Inc.,
927 F.2d 1565, 1576, 18 USPQ2d 1001, 1010 (Fed. Cir. 1991).
Based on our reading of Pallinger, we find ourselves in agreement with
appellants that Pallinger appears to disclose support bodies 7 in the form of beams, not
sheets, much less a steel sheet, as called for in claim 1. Having concluded that
Pallinger fails to disclose each and every element of claim 1, it follows that we cannot
sustain the examiner’s rejection of claim 1 as being anticipated by Pallinger.
We turn next to the examiner’s rejection of claim 1 as being anticipated by
Gschwendtner. Appellants argue that Gschwendtner fails to disclose a support
structure comprising a module comprising a steel sheet covering an escalator machine
and presenting a continuous planar exterior surface, as called for in claim 1. In
particular, appellants urge that Figure 1, referenced by the examiner for its presentation
of a continuous planar exterior surface (answer, page 4), does not show the support
structure of the escalator and, at best, schematically shows an outside cover over the
truss structure of Figure 2. Appellants also point out that the solid steel plates forming
supplementary wall supports 21 in Figure 8 (also referred to by the examiner on page 4
of the answer) are provided with passage openings 22 and thus do not present “a
continuous planar exterior surface” as called for in claim 1. See page 6 of the brief.
For the reasons which follow, we do not find these arguments persuasive.
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