Appeal No. 2005-1331 6
Application No. 10/215,414
In light of the foregoing, the decision of the examiner to reject claims 1 through 3,
6 through 12, 14, 16 through 22 and 24 of the present application under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) is reversed.
In addition, we find it necessary to REMAND this application to the examiner
under 37 CFR § 41.50 for consideration of the following issues.
1) During any further prosecution of the application, the examiner should obtain a
copy of JP 62-190330 described briefly on page 4 of Yoshio and make a determination
of its relevance to the presently claimed subject matter. According to Yoshio,
JP 62-190330 apparently describes an electric blanket wherein multiple heaters are
positioned “in a manner such that the heating area is actually divided” and also includes
a control unit which energizes those heaters either at the same time or alternately.
2) The examiner should also consider whether the electric blanket shown in
Figure 1 of Yoshio actually anticipates the subject matter set forth in independent claims
1 and 16, and/or any other claims on appeal. In that regard, we note that Yoshio shows
an electric blanket in Figure 1 wherein the blanket comprises a fabric (1), a first heating
element (2) aligned along the fabric and configured to heat a first zone of the fabric (foot
end) adjacent a lower portion of the user, a second heating element (4) aligned along
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