Appeal No. 2004-2154 Page 2
Application No. 10/067,049
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to a vibration damper for a vehicle of the type
having a pressure tube filled with a damping medium, a piston and piston rod axially
moveable in the pressure tube and a damping device which produces a damping force
as a function of the movement of the piston and rod and the flow of damping medium
through the damping device, the damper being provided with a damping force-limiting
device which becomes active when the damping force exceeds a certain threshold,
which is defined as a function of the vehicle (specification, pages 2 and 4). A copy of
the claims under appeal is set forth in the appendix to the appellants’ brief.
The examiner relied upon the following prior art references in rejecting the
appealed claims:
Freitag 3,995,842 Dec. 7, 1976
Pradel et al. (Pradel) DE 19823878 Dec. 23, 19991
(German patent document)
The following rejections are before us for review.
Claims 7-9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by
Pradel.
Claim 10 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Pradel in view of Freitag.
1 We derive our understanding of this reference from the English language translation appended
to appellants’ brief (Paper No. 14) as Appendix B.
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