Appeal No. 2000-1649
Application No. 08/951,077
the claim, i.e., "to an extent that [it] is practically [ ] 3
impossible to obtain a handhold on the top or sides of said
outer housing," we interpret the word "any" as "every." Thus,
in order to anticipate claim 1, the towel dispenser disclosed
by De Luca must include an outer housing which has a forward
surface which is "softly rounded to define a smoothly curving
cross-sectional profile in any [i.e., every] plane
perpendicular to the rear mounting surface."
It is evident to us that De Luca does not meet this
limitation. The examiner contends that the "softly rounded"
and "smoothly curving cross-sectional profile" limitations
have a broader connotation than "having a continuously arcuate
shape" (answer, page 5), but no matter how broadly they may be
interpreted, they are not met by De Luca. In Figs. 5 and 6,
De Luca shows top and bottom plan views of the dispenser, and
it is evident from these views that the cross-sectional
profile of the outer housing taken on a horizontal plane
through the dispenser would exhibit no curvature at all, but
merely would be flat at the sides and front of the dispenser,
3We note that on page 4, line 22, of appellant’s
specification "particularly" should be --practically--.
5
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