Appeal No. 2005-2656
Application No. 09/805,586
II. The 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) rejection of claims 1-4, 7-15 and 18-20 as being unpatentable
over Yamamoto in view of Okumura
Yamamoto, the examiner’s primary reference, pertains to side impact air bag
systems. For purposes of the rejection, the examiner focuses on the air bag
embodiment illustrated in Figures 9-12 which is designed to inflate and deploy without
being obstructed by a seat belt. This air bag 50 comprises an inflator 22, a lower
chamber 51, an upper chamber 52, an upper rear chamber 53, a seam 55 separating,
and defining a communication hole 54 between, the lower and upper chambers, and a
seam 57 separating, and defining a communication hole 56 between, the upper and
upper rear chambers. The seam 55 resists tearing during inflation, while the seam 57
tears to permit full deployment of the upper rear chamber when the inflation pressure
reaches a predetermined value (see column 7, line 56, through column 8, line 15). The
following passage from the reference describes the desired inflation and deployment
sequence:
When a collision force is applied to the side of the vehicle, the
sensor (not shown) detects the collision force and transmits an operation
command to the inflator 22. As shown in FIG. 11(a) and FIG. 12(b), the
inflator 22 blows out gas G1 via the discharge ports formed in its lower
portion into the lower chamber 51. The lower chamber 51 is inflated by
the gas G1 to intervene between the passenger's torso and the inner wall
for the vehicle compartment.
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