Appeal No. 96-1225
Application 08/107,696
move about or be distributed.[3]
This term is not limited in meaning to movement in a circle or
circuit but, rather, broadly includes movement from place to
place, which certainly is movement produced when an ultrasonic
generator is used.
For the above reasons, when we give the term
"mechanically circulated" in appellant’s claim 1 its broadest
reasonable interpretation in view of appellant’s specification
and the prior art, we find that this term includes the
movement of fluid provided by an ultrasonic generator.
Appellant argues that ultrasonic energy is not mechanical
(brief, page 7). We are not persuaded by this argument in
view of the teaching in Jackson ‘619 discussed above.
Appellant further argues that the application of ultrasonic
energy produces ultrasonic waves which cause microscopic
excursions of particles of the dense phase gas from their
equilibrium which does not suggest mechanical circulation (see
id.). This argument is not well taken because it is merely an
3Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary 264
(Riverside Publishing Co. 1984). A copy of the relevant page
of this dictionary is provided to appellant with this
decision.
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