Appeal No. 2005-1396
Application 09/739,990
art at the time the invention was made to utilize in Chou (‘123)
a heating unit mounted in the press bar as taught by Netherlands
(‘359) in order to provide heat directly to the object from the
top,1 and to provide an arrangement therein like that in
Taiwanese (‘687) so that when the free end of the press bar (2)
is pivoted downwardly a metal press plate causes the circuit to
close and activate the heating mechanism.
Moreover, the examiner recognizes that such a combination of
the applied prior art references would still not result in a
structure like that claimed by appellants and thus makes the
further contention that
[w]ith regard to “said metal press plate is secured to said
press bar”, Taiwanese ‘687 only shows said metal press plate
is secured to a base (10) instead of a press bar. It would
have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at
the time the invention was made to secure a metal press
plate to a press bar, since it has been held that
rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine
skill in the art. In Japikse, 86 USPQ 70” (supplemental
answer, page 6).
1
1 It is not entirely clear why the examiner is making this
particular modification in Chou (‘123), since claim 44 on appeal
does not include any such requirement. Claim 44 sets forth that
the electric sealer therein includes a “heating unit,” but does
not specify exactly where the heating unit is located on the
device.
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