Appeal 2007-1376
Application 10/677,870
surface of the rotating shaft. The seal ring comprises a first seal lip and a
second seal lip. The second seal lip has a tip edge which comes in sliding
contact with the outer surface of the outer cylindrical section of the slinger
and is tilted inward in the radial direction towards the edge of the tip. The
amount of elastic deformation of the second seal lip that occurs when its tip
edge comes in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the slinger’s
cylindrical section is within the range of at least 1/10 and 7/10 of the height
of the second seal lip in a free state.
Appealed claims 4-6 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Japanese ‘396 in view of Hosoda, Takenaka, Repella,
Johnen, and JP ‘985.
Appellants do not set forth an argument that is reasonably specific to
any particular claim on appeal. Accordingly, all the appealed claims stand
or fall together with claim 4.
We have thoroughly reviewed each of Appellants’ arguments for
patentability. However, we are in complete agreement with the Examiner’s
reasoned analysis and application of the prior art, as well as his cogent and
thorough disposition of the arguments raised by Appellants. Accordingly,
we will adopt the Examiner’s reasoning as our own in sustaining the
rejection of record, and we add the following for emphasis only.
Appellants do not dispute the Examiner’s factual determination that
JP ’396 discloses all the claimed features of Appellants’ seal apparatus for a
water pump with the exception that the reference “does not disclose that the
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