Appeal No. 2005-0208 Page 2
Application No. 10/137,510
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to torsion bars for independent suspensions,
and more particularly, the invention relates to variable rate torsion bars (specification, p.
1). A copy of the claims under appeal is set forth in the appendix to the appellant's
brief.
The prior art reference of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims is:
Moon 5,687,960 Nov. 18, 1997
The following two rejections as set forth on page 2 of the final rejection (mailed
July 17, 2003) are before us in this appeal:
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Moon.
See figs. 1 and 4. Please note that the two different diameter portions of
Moon are generally uniform in cross-section to the broad degree claimed.
. . .
Claims 11, 12, 15, 16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Moon.
The claimed method differs from Moon only in the position of adjusting the
contact portion.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have
adjusted the contact point at a second portion as a mere relocation of parts.
Re-claim 19, Moon shows an adjustment screw.
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