Appeal No. 97-2594
Application 08/444,389
37 CFR 1.142(b).
The claims on appeal are drawn to a method and apparatus
for generating steam using solar radiation. A copy of claims
1, 11 and 15 is contained in the appendix to appellants'
brief.2
The reference relied upon in rejecting the claims is:
Diggs 3,993,041 Nov. 23, 1976
Claims 1, 11 and 15 stand finally rejected as
unpatentable over Diggs, under 35 USC § 103.
In the final rejection (Paper No. 7) the examiner took
the position that (as to claims 1 and 11) Diggs disclosed all
the claimed subject matter except for the limitation that the
length of the short-term heat storage device in the flow
direction of the heated air is "substantially identical to the
length of the thermocline zone of said short-term heat storage
2We note that claim 1, line 11 recites "determining a length" of
the storage device, but not that the storage device is the recited length.
Also "a length" in claim 1, line 11 and claim 11, line 25 evidently should be
-- the length --. To be consistent with the paragraph bridging pages 10 and
11 of the specification, we have interpreted "determining a length" in claim
1, line 11, as -- the length --; "to be" in claim 1, line 12, as -- being --;
and "a length" in claim 11, line 25, as -- the length --. The claims should
be appropriately amended in any subsequent prosecution.
2
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