Appeal 2007-2429
Application 10/226,922
William Robert McCoskey Jr., Kenneth A. Hartsock, and Theodore P.
Nykreim (Appellants) appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner’s decision
rejecting claims 8, 40-42, 56, and 58.1 Claims 8, 40-42, 56, and 58 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. §103(a) as unpatentable over Brenneis (US 6,684,593 B2, issued
February 3, 2004) in view of Noda (US 6,502,788 B2, issued January 7, 2003),
Weiler (US 2,952,341, issued September 13, 1960) or Fant (US 3,995,081, issued
November 30, 1976) and Spriggs (US 5,262,220, issued November 16, 1993). We
have jurisdiction over this appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6 (2002).
Appellants’ invention relates to a structural panel (10) having a skin (12)
with intersecting stringers (18) and chords (20) (fig. 1). The main features of the
invention at issue in this appeal are the presence of a “ramped transition portion”
(43) and/or a “fillet” portion at the intersection of the skin panel (12) and the
stringers (18) or chords (20) (Figure 7).
The Appellants and the Examiner seem to disagree as to whether the curved
fillets shown in Noda (Figure 7), Weiler (Figure 2), or Fant (Figures 2-21)
constitute a “ramped transition portion.” However, upon a careful review of the
record in this appeal, it appears that neither the Appellants nor the Examiner have
construed “ramped transition portion” or “fillet.”2 Accordingly, we have not been
1 Claims 39 and 57 were canceled subsequent to the Final Rejection.
2 Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Ed. 1997) defines a “ramp” as a
“sloping way…leading from one level to another” and a “fillet” as a “concave
junction formed where two surfaces meet (as at an angle).”
2
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