Appeal No. 2006-2280 Page 19
Application No. 10/244,011
problem facing the inventor. A person of ordinary skill would not reasonably be
expected to look for a solution to the inventor’s problem in the field of heat
shrinkable plastic jackets supporting cables. As such, we do not sustain the
examiner’s rejection of claims 8, 9 and 13 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Finegan in view of Shrader.
B. Carpenter and Finegan
The examiner rejected claims 1-7, 10-12 and 14-21 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as being unpatentable over Carpenter in view of Finegan. The examiner
determined that Carpenter disclose a flexible elastomeric or rubber sleeve (2) that
is slidable on the shaft of the cane and would inherently frictionally engage an
edge or surface when the cane is placed on the walking surface and leaned against
such surface. The examiner found that Carpenter does not disclose that the rubber
sleeve (2) is a pad rolled into a sleeve using Velcro or adhesive areas on the pad
surface. The examiner relied on Finegan for the teaching of a flexible rubber pad
(30) having an adhesive area (11) on a surface being a hook/loop type (34) to
engage an opposing surface with a hook/loop type fastener (32) when formed into
a loop to facilitate easy assembly. The examiner found that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the rubber sleeve of Carpenter
such that it is of a pad type rolled into a sleeve form connected by a hook/loop type
fastener, as taught by Finegan, for easy assembly. Answer, p. 5.
The appellant argues that Carpenter solves the problem of retrieving a cane
that has been misplaced or dropped by using a complex structure that attaches the
cane to the user’s belt. The appellant contends that there is no teaching or
suggestion in Carpenter to solve the problem of preventing a cane from falling over
in the first place by attaching a pad that is adapted to frictionally engage an edge or
Page: Previous 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007