Appeal No. 2006-0983
Application No. 09/793,057
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful
consideration to appellants’ specification and claims, to the
applied prior art references, and to the respective positions
articulated by appellants and the examiner. As a consequence of
our review, we have made the determinations which follow.
We turn first to the examiner's rejection of claims 1 through
4 and 8 through 16 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) based on Goulait. The
salient feature of appellants' independent claim 1 is the
requirement that the hook component, defined therein as including a
hook backing and a plurality of hooks protruding from one side of
the backing, have an overall aspect ratio within a range of 40 to
55 percent, wherein the overall aspect ratio is defined as the
“aggregate hook head area, measured at an elevation above the hook
backing that includes a maximum overhang of heads of the hooks,
divided by an overall area of the hook component.” In the
examiner’s view this limitation is met by the disclosure in Goulait
at column 10, lines 5-18. That portion of Goulait reads as
follows:
3
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