Appeal No. 2006-1085
Application No. 10/392,209
joining one scooter to another in a close mating relationship so that at least
one person can ride two or more scooters at the same time. To address this
deficiency in Karashima, the examiner turns to John, urging that this patent
discloses a pallet device or platform (10) comprising modular sections (12-
15), each of which sections has a vertical side surface (50) with a horizontal
flange (18) extending from the bottom edge of the vertical surface, and a
vertical flange (52’) extending upwardly from the horizontal flange so as to
define a groove adapted to receive a tongue (52) of a second platform
section, as shown in Figures 4 and 4A. From the examiner’s perspective, it
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of
appellant’s invention to provide the carts or scooters of Karashima with
flange connections like those of John, as a replacement for those already
present on Karashima, “to prevent the scooters from disconnecting in either
the upward or downward directions” (answer, page 3).
Appellant contends (brief, pages 5-14) that Karashima and John are
non-analogous art to the art of the present invention, that the examiner has
failed to state or identify any motivation or suggestion to combine the
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