Appeal No. 98-2186
Application No. 08/517,946
page 5, lines 5-19, of the specification, we understand the
language "adjacent the bottom floor" in claim 1, and similar
language in method claim 9, to require that the fan (42, 46)
be located at the inlet end (50) of a discharge conduit (e.g.,
44) and closely adjacent the floor of the bottom level of a
building, usually the basement floor as seen at (14) in
appellant’s Figure 1.
Recognizing the above-noted deficiency in Lestage, the
examiner turns to the heat retrieving device of Watkins,
noting that this device has the fan or pump (28) thereof
located adjacent the floor (12). The examiner concludes that
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
to move the fan (8) of Lestage so that it is located adjacent
the floor (1) therein, in view of Watkins, for the purpose of
making it easier to remove the fan for cleaning or repair
purposes.
In our opinion, the examiner’s rejection is merely an
improper hindsight attempt to reconfigure and reconstruct the
device of Lestage based on appellant’s own teachings and not
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