Appeal 2007-2867
Application 10/816,664
triggered wands typically were constructed with a pump and an engine
mounted onto a wheeled chassis so they could be easily moved
(Specification 1:16-23). Given the knowledge possessed by those of
ordinary skill in the high pressure washing apparatus art, we agree with the
Examiner that there was an apparent reason to combine the known pump and
engine assembly of the known triggered wand-type pressure washers with
the chassis-based apparatus of Poppitz. See KSR Int’l v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S.
Ct. 1727, 1740-41, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007) (“Often, it will be
necessary for a court to look to interrelated teachings of multiple patents; the
effects of demands known to the design community or present in the
marketplace; and the background knowledge possessed by a person having
ordinary skill in the art, all in order to determine whether there was an
apparent reason to combine the known elements in the fashion claimed by
the patent at issue.”).
We conclude that it would have been obvious to those of ordinary
skill constructing high pressure washers to have mounted a high pressure
pump and engine on the chassis of Poppitz’s high pressure floor cleaning
machine. We, therefore, sustain the rejection of claim 1 and those claims
standing or falling with claim 1, namely, claims 2, 3, and 5-8.
Turning to claim 9, the issue with regard to this claim is: Is the skirt
32 of Poppitz a “diffuser plate means” within the meaning of the claim? We
answer this question in the negative for the following reasons.
Skirt 32 of Poppitz is a continuous annular band of rubber or plastic
material that confines the high pressure washing fluid mist emanating from
jets 83 and 89 to the chamber 34 within the chassis (housing 22) (col. 2, ll.
54-66; Figs. 4 and 5). Claim 9, by contrast, requires a “diffuser plate means
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