Appeal No. 2004-1153
Application No. 09/927,140
§ 103 rejections will not be sustained. Our reasons follow.
In the rejection of claims 1 through 8, 12 through 22 and 25
through 34 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a), the examiner urges that
Browning discloses the invention "substantially as claimed" and
identifies certain elements of the long firearm shown therein,
including a frame (i.e., receiver and barrel assembly 11, 12), a
locking member (bolt 45) extending rearwardly from the frame, and
a stock (13) having a longitudinal bore extending from the
forward end of the stock to receive the locking member (45). In
the examiner's view, the only aspect the Browning patent does not
disclose is a cam lock disposed in the stock (13) and rotatable
between a locked position and an unlocked position for engaging
locking member (45) when the cam lock is rotated to the locked
position to secure the stock to the frame. To account for this
difference, the examiner points to the cam lock furniture panel
fastening device of Harley, which the examiner characterizes as
being "in the same field of endeavor" (final rejection, page 2),
and concludes that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art at the time of appellant's invention to have
used the two-part fastener of Harley in order to modify "the
locking member 45 of Browning to be a cam lock in order to fasten
44
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