Appeal No. 1997-2499
Application No. 08/228,449
circuits, fans and other equipment which relate to the
temperature determination. The “heat stopping means”
constitutes a switch for turning off the halogen lamp when the
temperature exceeds a preset value.
In comparison neither the admitted prior art nor the
reference to Nagae discloses the structural components of the
apparatus additionally required by claim 42. Nor has the
examiner argued in either the Answer or the Final Rejection
that these features are taught by the admitted prior art or
Nagae. Based upon the above considerations, the rejection is
not sustainable as the structure created in the claimed
subject matter requires features that are not achieved by
combining the references.
We refer next to the rejection of claims 68 to 71 over
MITA in view of Nagae. We observe that claim 68 requires the2
presence of “heating and near IR irradiation means, provided
in a part of said casing means,” which we determine to be
means-plus-function elements. We observe that the
We refer to a translation of the MITA by the United States Patent2
& Trademark Office received November 1999.
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