Appeal No. 96-1809
Application 08/094,724
As for the brush (150), we agree with appellant that
(Reply Brief, p.2):
[T]he brush is fluid permeable because any liquid
penetrates between the fibers of the brush, making
the brush permeable as a whole.
The examiner has failed to establish otherwise. In re
Oetiker,
977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992)
(the examiner bears the initial burden of presenting a prima
facie case of unpatentability).
B. Harrison fails to describe “placing the transfer
element liquid-supporting surface in
contact with all of said surface area of a test
element at once”
Claim 1 further requires that the transfer element
liquid-supporting surface be in contact with all of the
surface area of the test element at once. Harrison fails to
describe this additional limitation.
In Harrison, the transfer element liquid-supporting
surface comprises a loop, and the surface area of the test
element comprises a sheet member 5 (Figure 2). According to
Harrison (col. 4, lines 28-33):
7
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