Ex Parte Asada - Page 3




               Appeal No. 2006-2169                                                                         Page 3                  
               Application No. 09/899,919                                                                                           


                               when said stopper is inserted into said mounting hole along said                                     
                       cord receiving hole portion, said each of said blade portions penetrates                                     
                       into a covering portion of said optical fiber cord, with the positioning slit                                
                       being perpendicular to the axis of said optical fiber cord, while said each of                               
                       the blade portions removes a portion of said covering portion, thereby                                       
                       fixing said optical fiber cord along the axis of said optical fiber cord.                                    

                               3. An optical connector according to claim 1, wherein the side edge                                  
                       of said positioning slit for said each of the blade portions projects a gable                                
                       wedge having a cross-section corner along a thickness midline of the side                                    
                       edge for said each of the blade portions, the cross-section corner                                           
                       extending toward said positioning slit.                                                                      

                               4. An optical connector according to claim 1, wherein the distal end                                 
                       edge of said plate-like portion slants from a first cross-section face of said                               
                       plate-like portion to a second cross-section face of said plate-like portion.                                

                       Claims 1-4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious over U.S. Patent                               
               No. 5,452,386  ("van Woesik ") and U.S. Patent No. 6,174,091  ("Herrmann").                                          


                                                           II. OPINION                                                              
                       At the outset, we note that the appellant’s principal brief contain numerous                                 
               references to specific line numbers of his specification.  (App. Br. at 2-4, 11, 13, 17.)                            
               Although such precision is welcome, the specification itself omits line numbers.  The                                
               appellant should number the lines of his specifications to facilitate reference thereto.                             











Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007