Appeal No. 2005-2656
Application No. 09/805,586
tensing joints should be configured and arranged to facilitate the smooth flow of inflation
gas throughout the bag (see column 10, line 59 et seq.).
Likening Okumura’s tensing joints 22 to Yamamoto’s seams 55 and 57, the
examiner submits that
it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the
art at the time the invention was made to modify the air bag
assembly of Yamamoto et al. such that . . . the expansion
restraint elements remain operative upon full inflation, such
as the air bag assembly disclosed in Okumura et al. One
would have been motivated to make such a modification in
view of the suggestion in Okumura et al. that . . . the
expansion restraint elements that remain operative upon
inflation allow for smooth flow of inflating gas [final rejection,
page 3].
Okumura, however, does not actually teach or suggest that expansion restraint
elements that remain operative upon inflation lead to the smooth flow of inflating gas.
Instead, Okumura teaches that tensing joints 22, which are necessary to provide air bag
11 with desirable restraint characteristics, may smooth the flow of inflating gas if they
are suitably configured and arranged. These tensing joints 22 perform an entirely
different function compared to the seams 55 and 57 disclosed by Yamamoto, and would
not have furnished the artisan with any motivation or suggestion to modify Yamamoto’s
tear seam 57 so that it remains operative upon full inflation of the air bag cushion
without failing. Indeed, such a modification would destroy the air bag inflation and
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