Appeal No. 2006-0699
Application No. 90/005,937
1 The Examiner, on the other hand, observes that the side
2 portions (71, 72) of Gagne secure the plastic material (70) to the
3 support (50) that helps prevent the illumination strip (90) from
4 being removed from the support (50). (Examiner’s Answer, page 5).
5 This, in the Examiner’s view, “locates and retains” the strip.
6 We disagree with this interpretation of the phrase “locate
7 and retain.” The sidewalls do not retain or locate the
8 luminescent material in Gagne. The sidewalls of the plastic
9 material act only to anchor a protective cap. In Gagne, the
10 double-sided adhesive tape acts to retain the luminescent
11 material, while the sidewalls of the recessed channel fix it in a
12 particular position. As a consequence, we cannot say that the
13 sidewalls of Gagne, which may “encapsulate” the luminescent
14 material, act to “locate” and “retain” as required by the claim
15 language.
16 The Examiner has not provided any rationale explaining why
17 deletion of the double sided tape would have been obvious, and
18 modifying the structure of Gagne to have the channel sidewall
19 function performed by the clear plastic cap.
20 We therefore find that the Examiner has not sustained the
21 burden of showing that the subject matter of claim 27 would have
22 found it to have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
23 at the time the invention was made. Accordingly, we cannot sustain
10
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