Appeal No. 96-0984
Application 08/132,529
The appellant’s invention pertains to a disposable bed pan
having a seat and a texture formed on that portion of the seat
which comes into contact with the skin of a user. Independent
claim 1 is further illustrative of the appealed subject matter
and reads as follows:
1. A disposable molded all plastic sanitary bed pan
comprising a bowl having a seat at an upper edge of said bowl,
and a texture formed on a surface of that portion of said seat
which comes into contact with the skin of a patient, said texture
having interconnected depressions forming communication passage-
ways for allowing an escape of air through said interconnected
depressions at an interface between patient and seat, whereby
said bed pan is much less likely to cling and stick to said
patient.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Bridger 3,740,096 June 19, 1973
Glass 4,368,548 Jan. 18, 1983
Claims 1-10, 12, 14 and 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 as being unpatentable over Glass in view of Bridger. It is
the examiner’s position that:
Glass teaches a molded plastic bedpan including a
“bowl” 14, a “flange” 24 which forms a “seat,” and
“strengthening vertical wall member” 26. The “bowl” 14
is sloped from front to back as claimed and the
“flange” 24 changes pitch as claimed. Although Glass
lacks a “texture” comprising “interconnected
depressions” on the “seat,” attention is directed to
Bridger who teaches another device on which a person
may sit, i.e., a chair, the “seat” of which has a
“texture” which may be “roughened to prevent sliding
forward of a person seated thereon” (col. 3, lines 22-
24). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary
2
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