Appeal No. 1999-0739
Application 08/747,663
responsive to the “rigid fingers” limitation set forth in each
of the independent claims on appeal, the examiner urges that
the bristles of the toothbrush head in Curtis are capable of
parting
the taste buds and thereby of also allowing liquid to be
delivered via the hollow bristles to the surface of the
tongue.
Based on this determination, the examiner concludes (final
rejection, page 3) that appellant has not disclosed “the
criticality of the fingers being rigid,” and urges that it
therefore would have been “[an] obvious matter of design
choice to employ such limitation on the Curtis et al device
since the applicant has not disclosed that such solves any
stated problem or is for any particular purpose, and it
appears the device would work equally well with flexible
hollow bristles.”
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