Appeal No. 99-0230
Application No. 08/396,277
music, into a signal. From our perspective, therefore, Henry2
would not have suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art
that a microphone be utilized to indicate the level of air
flow in an inhalation airstream by measuring the sound
produced by turbulence in the airstream. This being the case,
Henry does not alleviate the deficiency in Edgar pointed out
above.
Nor is this deficiency cured by the textbook or Snook.
The textbook is cited for its teaching that inhalers and
nebulizers are functional equivalents in the respiratory
therapy art, a conclusion that is not disputed by the
appellants. It provides no information at all regarding
measuring the airstream flow in a duct during patient
inhalation. Snook teaches that a wide variety of sensors can
be used to sense the level of flow in an aerosol delivery
system. Be that as it may, Snook does not disclose or teach
the claimed means for generating turbulence and the
microphone. We note here in passing that while the examiner’s
position appears to be that the teachings of Snook would give
2See The Illustrated Dictionary of Electronics, Fifth
Edition, 1991, pp. 335-336 and 460.
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