Appeal No. 1998-0910
Application No. 08/454,596
(transfer tank). A blower 10 establishes a partial vacuum in
the holding tank 8. When a user initiates a flushing
operation, rinse water enters the bowl, the blower 10 is
activated, and the discharge valve 6 is opened, whereby waste
material and rinse water are rapidly drawn from the bowl 2
(column 6, lines 38 through 44). As an alternative for the
blower 10, the patentee refers to an electrically driven
vacuum pump (column 8, lines 1 through 5).
Like the examiner, we fully appreciate that the applied
references individually reveal many aspects of the system of
appellant’s claim 1. However, setting aside in our minds the
teaching of the present application, when we collectively
consider the evidence of obviousness as a whole, it is at once
apparent to us that the applied patents themselves simply
would not have suggested the proposed selective modifications
of the Burns apparatus to yield the above-ground sewage
treatment removal system as set forth in claim 1. In effect,
a major overhaul and reworking of the apparatus of Burns would
be required and, as we see it, only impermissible guidance
from appellant’s own disclosure, and not the evidence of
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