Appeal No. 95-4735
Application 07/826,171
The examiner made factual findings that a spiral indented rib or groove on the bottom surface of
a pan and a wide flat rim on a pan terminating with a rolled lip are old and well known in the art. The
examiner concluded that
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was
made to provide the EKCO catalog reference with a spiral indented rib as taught by Finley
and a wide flat rim terminating with a rolled lip as taught by Young. Merely changing the
spiral to a rectangular spiral to conform with the chosen shape is an obvious and minor
modification since if you change the shape of the pan then the spiral would also have to
change.
Appellants argue that Finley’s design shows features which are not within the scope of appellants’
claim such as wire shaped handles (12 and 13) and openings on the top rim of the pan while “Young shows
a round pan having a rolled lip” (brief: p. 7). Appellants assert that their design “is rectangular shaped and
has a rectangular pathway of ever decreasing length lines which meet at substantially at a right angle as one
moves from the outside of the design to the inside” and that there “is no spiral (curved) like appearance in
the nature of a helix with one or more turns about an axis” (id.). Appellants equate their groove design to
a maze at Hampton Court Palace in England. Appellants also argue that the prior art relied upon by the
examiner provides no motivation for one to make the changes to the EKCO pan to arrive at appellants’
design illustrated by Figs. 1-8. On page 8 of the brief, appellants maintain that
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Last modified: November 3, 2007