Appeal 2006-3264
Application 10/685,377
patentability of those claims. We therefore limit our discussion to claims 1
and 5. See 37 C.F.R. § 41.37(c)(1)(vii) (2004).
Claim 1
Cohen ‘781 discloses “an armored plate which may be worn to
provide the user with lightweight ballistic protection” (Cohen ‘781, col. 1, ll.
11-13) and “armored plates for providing ballistic protection for light and
heavy mobile equipment and vehicles against high-speed projectiles or
fragments” (Cohen ‘781, col. 1, ll. 13-16). Each plate comprises
a single internal layer of pellets which are directly bound and retained
in plate form by a solidified material such that the pellets are bound in
a plurality of adjacent rows, characterized in that the pellets have a
specific gravity of at least 2 and are made of a material selected from
the group consisting of glass, sintered refractory material, ceramic
material which does not contain aluminum oxide and ceramic material
having an aluminum oxide content of not more than 80%, the majority
of the pellets each having at least one axis of at least 3 mm length and
are bound by said solidified material in said single internal layer of
adjacent rows such that each of a majority of said pellets is in direct
contact with at least 4 adjacent pellets in the same layer to provide
mutual lateral confinement therebetween, said pellets each have a
substantially regular geometric form and said solidified material and
said plate are elastic. [Cohen ‘781, col. 3, l. 66 – col. 4, l. 15.]
* * *
The solidified material can be any suitable material which
retains elasticity upon hardening at the thickness used, such as
aluminum, epoxy, a thermoplastic polymer such as polycarbonate, or
a thermoset plastic, thereby allowing curvature of the plate without
cracking to match curved surfaces to be protected, including body
surfaces, as well as elastic reaction of the plate to incoming projectiles
to allow increased contact force between adjacent pellets at the point
of impact. [Cohen ‘781, col. 4, ll. 41-49.]
3
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