Appeal No. 2004-1150
Application No. 09/924,490
Claims 1, 13, 14, 18, 20, 37-39, 41, 43, 45, 50, 52, 54, 56,
57, 59 and 66 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Ellzey in view of Thomas.
Attention is directed to appellants’ main and reply briefs
(Paper Nos. 8 and 11) and to the examiner’s second office action
and answer (Paper Nos. 5 and 9) for the respective positions of
appellants and the examiner regarding the merits of these
rejections.
The Anticipation Rejection
Appellants’ specification explains at page 5, lines 1-9, that
the technique of joining components by friction stir butt welding
. . . involves placing the two said component in abutting
relationship with each other, inserting a probe of
material harder than the component material into a joint
region between the two components and causing relative
cyclic movement between the probe and components whereby
frictional heat is generated to cause portions of the
components in the region of the joint to take up a
plasticised condition, removing the probe and allowing
the plasticised portions to solidify and join the
components together.
Appellants acknowledge that the above described welding
technique per se was known at the time of appellants’ invention.
See the paragraph spanning pages 4-5 of appellants’ specification,
as well as page 2 of appellants’ main brief. Appellants’ invention
3
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