In re Mason

This is an appeal from the decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office, rejecting as unpatentable over the prior art claims 1, 2, 8, 9 and 11 of appellant’s application for a patent for “Improvements in Valves.”

The board refused to sustain the rejection of the Primary Examiner on the basis of the references cited but, under the provisions of Eule 196 (b), Eules of Practice, United States Patent Office (September 1955), applied two additional references and, at the same time, withdrew one of the references upon which the examiner relied. The claims in question were then…