Ex parte Lange et al.

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Oct 27, 1999

08499111 (B.P.A.I. Oct. 27, 1999)

Application for patent filed July 6, 1995.1
1
THIS OPINION WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION
The opinion in support of the decision being entered today (1)
was not written for publication in a law journal and (2) is
not binding precedent of the Board.
Paper No. 14
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
__________
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
__________
Ex parte KLAUS-ULRICH LANGE, FRIEDRICH MICHAELIS
and HERMANN LENZ
__________
Appeal No. 1999-0050
Application 08/499,1111
___________
ON BRIEF
___________
Before COHEN, McQUADE and NASE, Administrative Patent Judges.
McQUADE, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Klaus-Ulrich Lange et al. appeal from the final rejection
of claims 1, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 15 through 17. Claims 6 through
8 and 11 through 14, the only other claims pending in the
Appeal No. 1999-0050
Application 08/499,111
2
application, stand withdrawn from consideration pursuant to 37
CFR § 1.142(b). The subject matter on appeal relates to a
gripper cylinder for use in a sheet handling machine. Claim 1
is illustrative and reads as follows:
1. A gripper cylinder for a folding apparatus,
comprising:
a cylinder shaft;
a cylinder body mounted on the cylinder shaft;
at least two gripper stations mounted on the cylinder
body and including grippers and corresponding gripper
bases, each of the gripper bases being configured as a
roller having a periphery formed of a plurality of surfaces
at different distances from a center of the roller; and
adjusting means for adjusting the gripper stations so
that a distance between each gripper and its corresponding
gripper base corresponds to a thickness of a product to be
gripped, the adjusting means being operative to
simultaneously adjust all the gripper stations, the
adjusting means further being operative to adjust the
gripper bases.
The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Kirn et al. (Kirn) 3,680,642 Aug. 1,
1972
Jeschke et al. (Jeschke) 4,667,952 May
26, 1987
Claims 1, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 15 through 17 stand rejected
Appeal No. 1999-0050
Application 08/499,111
3
under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Jeschke in
view of Kirn.
Reference is made to the appellants’ brief (Paper No. 12)
and to the examiner’s answer (Paper No. 13) for the respective
positions of the appellants and the examiner with regard to
the merits of this rejection.
Jeschke, the examiner’s primary reference, discloses a
gripper cylinder in the form of a sheet-guiding drum 1. The
drum comprises a shaft, a drum body 6 and a plurality of
gripper stations in the form of gripper bridges 5 mounted on
the drum body. Each gripper bridge 5 includes a gripper 7 and
a corresponding gripper base or support 8 which is radially
adjustable relative to the gripper to accommodate sheets of
different thicknesses. The drum 1 also comprises means for
simultaneously adjusting all of the gripper bases (see, for
example, column 4, lines 27 through 64).
As conceded by the examiner (see page 4 in the answer),
Appeal No. 1999-0050
Application 08/499,111
4
the Jeschke gripper cylinder does not meet the limitations in
claim 1 requiring each gripper base to be configured as a
roller having a periphery formed of a plurality of surfaces at
different distances from a center of the roller. Jeschke’s
gripper bases 8 are beam-like structures which are adjustably
supported for
movement generally along their longitudinal axes. The
examiner’s reliance on Kirn to cure this deficiency in Jeschke
is not well founded.
Kirn discloses a variable speed percussion drilling
machine having an eccentrically-mounted prismatic portion 139
which can be turned to adjust the axial position and operation
of a tool holder shaft 127 (see column 6, lines 8 through 61).

According to the examiner,
Kirn et al. disclose the old and well known concept
of providing a roller with planar surfaces (139)
that is eccentrically mounted to allow for linear
adjustment of machine elements (see col. 6, lines
13-21).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill
Appeal No. 1999-0050
Application 08/499,111
Our review of claims 4 and 5 in light of the underlying2
disclosure (see the third paragraph on specification page 5)
indicates that the particular gripper base embodiments defined
in these claims are mutually exclusive to the gripper base
embodiment recited in parent claim 1 (“a roller having a
periphery formed of a plurality of surfaces at different
distances from a center of roller”). These inconsistencies,
apparently introduced inadvertently in the amendment filed
January 16, 1997 (Paper No. 5), are deserving of correction in
5
in the art at the time the invention was made to
provide the apparatus of Jeschke et al with non-
circular section gripper bases . . . in view of Kirn
et al. so as [to] adjust the gripper base to
correspond to varying thicknesses of the paper
[answer, pages 4 and 5].
Kirn’s disclosure of a percussion drilling machine,
however, is far removed from Jeschke’s disclosure of a sheet-
guiding drum. Given the disparate natures of these devices,
it is apparent that the examiner has engaged in an
impermissible hindsight reconstruction of the appellants’
invention by utilizing the appealed claims as a blueprint to
selectively pick and choose from among isolated disclosures in
the prior art. Therefore, we shall not sustain the standing
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) rejection of
independent claim 1 or of claims 4, 5, 9, 10 and 15 through 17
which depend therefrom.2
Appeal No. 1999-0050
Application 08/499,111
the event of further prosecution before the examiner.
6
The decision of the examiner is reversed.
REVERSED
IRWIN CHARLES COHEN )
Administrative Patent Judge )
)
)
) BOARD OF PATENT
JOHN P. McQUADE )
Administrative Patent Judge ) APPEALS AND
)
) INTERFERENCES
)
JEFFREY V. NASE )
Administrative Patent Judge )
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