Appeal No. 97-0991
Application 08/436,660
Fine also fails to disclose a mug assembly having “at
least one strip of sealing material attached adjacent to the
upper edge of the external mug on the outer surface thereof,
the sealing material having a flat outer surface . . . wherein
the flat outer surface of the sealing material is adapted to
frictionally engage the flat internal surface of the
overhanging lip [on the internal mug]” as recited in
independent claim 21. Here again, the examiner’s3
determination that the adhesive between the notch C and edge D
of the prior art container described by Fine meets this
limitation is based on unsupported and unreasonable findings
as to the properties and location of this adhesive. Moreover,
while the Fine container (Figures 3 through 7) does have at
least one strip of sealing material in the form of band 27 or
band 28 attached adjacent to the upper edge of the external
mug or shell on the outer surface thereof, neither band
3As disclosed, the outer surface 50 of the sealing
material 30 (or 31) and the internal surface 52 of the
overhanging lip 46 are curved in a substantially cylindrical
sense and thus are not actually “flat” within the ordinary and
accustomed meaning of this term. Nonetheless, we understand
the appellant’s use of the term “flat” to define these
surfaces to mean that the surfaces are flat when viewed in
cross-section as shown, for example, in Figure 4.
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