Appeal No. 2006-0172
Application No. 10/460,478
(filed March 9, 2005) and Reply Brief (filed July 28, 2005) for the arguments
thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
appellant’s specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by appellant and the examiner. As a consequence of
our review, we have made the determinations which follow.
Like the examiner, we note that Zorbas discloses a venetian type blind window
covering comprising a head rail or box (32), a bottom rail (52) arranged parallel to and
spaced below the head rail, a plurality of fabric slats (10) each having long front and
rear sides and two ribs (24) respectively embedded in the front and rear sides, ladder
tape sets (38, 39) connected to and supporting the slats, and a control unit (34, 36) for
operation by the user to lift and lower the bottom rail, and to move the front and rear
ladder tapes relative to one another to facilitate tilting of the slats. Zorbas does not
disclose any light screening fabric flaps suspended from the slats.
To address that aspect of the claimed subject matter the examiner turns to Kandel,
which patent discloses a venetian blind wherein each horizontal slat (10) is provided
with a detachably mounted “screening element” generally comprising a base (16) and a
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