Appeal No. 2004-1854
Application No. 08/971,851
preventing exhaust gas from bypassing the pollution control
element, said sheet material having major top and bottom surfaces,
a thickness, a length, and a width corresponding to a direction of
exhaust gas through the device, said sheet material having at least
one score-line in the major top surface and across the entire width
of said sheet material to relieve enough surface tension in said
sheet material that, when said sheet material is disposed around
the curvature of said pollution control element, cracking or
breaking of said sheet material that would otherwise occur is
avoided.
The examiner has relied upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Corn 5,332,609 Jul. 26, 1994
Kitamura et al. (JP ‘916) 61-89916 May 8, 1986
(published Japanese kokai patent application)
Kusada et al. (JP ‘313) 02-061313 Mar. 1, 1990
(published Japanese kokai patent application)3
The following rejections are before this panel for review in
this appeal:
(1) claims 12-16, 18-20, 23-25, 27-28, 34, 36-38 and 42-47
stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over
JP ‘916 (Answer, page 4);
(2) claims 19-20 stand rejected under section 103(a) as
unpatentable over JP ‘916 in view of JP ‘313 (Answer, page 5);
3We rely upon and cite from full English translations of the
JP ‘916 and JP ‘313 documents, previously made of record
(translations listed as PTO 99-3188 and PTO 99-3034,
respectively).
3
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