Appeal No. 97-0690
Application No. 08/375,094
In contrast to appellant’s position on pages 9 and 10 of
the brief, we view the language of claim 1 on appeal regarding
“oscillating members,” which are rapidly oscillated by the
flow of liquid material, as being readable on and encompassing
the valve head members (32, 32a) of Lockwood when the device
of
Lockwood is used to apply short dots of liquid material on the
moving work surface (19) “at high cycling rate” (Lockwood,
col. 1, lines 40-44). In this regard, we consider that the
terms “oscillating” and “oscillated” in appellant’s claim 1
are broad enough to encompass the type of back and forth
motion experienced by the valve head members (32, 32a) of
Lockwood when they are reciprocated at high cycling rates.
Webster’s New World Dictionary (Prentice Hall Press, 1986)
defines “oscillate” as “1. to swing or move regularly back
and forth” and defines “reciprocate” as “2. to move
alternately back and forth.” Since both of these terms appear
to mean the same thing, we view them as being interchangeable
in the present fact situation. Thus, when the applicator of
Lockwood is operated to apply short dots of liquid material,
it is broadly a pulsating spraying device having a plurality
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