Appeal No. 2004-2347 Page 2
Application No. 09/839,519
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to a ladder step safety guard. An
understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1,
which has been reproduced below.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Jankowski 5,038,889 Aug. 13, 1991
Hardy 5,638,915 Jun. 17, 1997
Weller 5,749,437 May 12, 1998
The following rejections are before us:
(1) Claims 1 and 3-7 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Hardy.
(2) Claims 12, 13 and 15-17 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Weller.
(3) Claim 2 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hardy in view of
Jankowski.
(4) Claims 8-11 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Weller in view of
Jankowski.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellants regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the Answer
(Paper No. 15) for the examiner's reasoning in support of the rejections, and to the Brief
(Paper No. 14) for the appellants’ arguments thereagainst.
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