Appeal No. 2002-0957 Page 4
Application No. 09/635,634
simply requires the capability of the space to rest on a portion of the user’s forearm and
to accommodate a portion of a thumb (for example, a thumbnail or pinch of skin) of the
user’s hand. We also note that the claimed container has not been limited so as to
require any particular type or size of user. Accordingly, claim 1 does not preclude the
referenced user being a child with a small forearm and thumb, for example.
Budd discloses a disposable pet food dish comprising two receptacles (cavities
22, 32) separated by panels or sidewalls extending upwardly toward a common edge1
so as to define a space therebetween (see Figure 2). The only arguments made by
appellant as to why claim 1 is not anticipated by Budd are that (1) considering the
obvious dimensions of the pet food dish there is not enough room to clasp the bottom
of one of the compartments with a portion of a thumb in the space between the
compartments let alone support the dish by inserting a portion of that hand’s forearm in
the remaining space and (2) the surrounding skirt of Budd’s dish provides an
unsurmountable impediment to actually supporting the pet dish with a forearm between
the compartments (brief, page 5). Appellant has not asserted that any other limitation
of claim 1 is not met by Budd.
As for the first argument, as discussed above, claim 1 simply calls for the space
between the receptacles defined by the panels to be of sufficient length to
accommodate “at least a portion of a thumb of a hand of the user” (emphasis ours), not
1 Note that the top wall 12 and one sidewall portion depending therefrom may be considered to be
one of the panels called for in claim 1, with the other sidewall portion depending from the top wall 12 being
considered to be the other panel called for in claim 1.
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