Appeal No. 95-2081
Application 07/825,778
above the bottom of the hull, the tunnel having "a forward
vertical wall being approximately one inch in height." In
applying the Small patent in his rejection of claim 1, the
examiner has taken the position that Small discloses a tunnel
(20) with a forward wall (24). In the answer (page 9), the
examiner urges that appellant has not limited his wall to a
perfectly vertical position (i.e., 90 degrees) and concludes
that the wall (24) of Small "has a vertical component, and
thus is considered a vertical wall." We do not agree.
Given the express description by appellant of the
wall (26) in the specification (page 10) and the showing of
the wall (26) in Figures 3, 9, 10 and 12 of the application
drawings, as well as the common dictionary definition of
"vertical," we must conclude that the "forward vertical wall"2
of the tunnel set forth in claim 1 on appeal would have been
understood by one of ordinary skill in the art as being
2 See Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College
Edition, Prentice Hall Press, 1986, wherein "vertical" is
defined as " 2. a) perpendicular, or at a right angle, to the
plane of the horizon; upright; straight up and down b) at a
right angle to the plane of the supporting surface."
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