Appeal No. 1997-2387
Application No. 08/082,373
(answer, p. 7, ll. 4-7). The examiner relies on the Takahashi abstract to show use of a flat-
bottomed reaction vessel in conjunction with a semispherical magnet to form a
sedimentation image which does not depend on the shape of the bottom of the reaction
vessel (answer, p. 7, ll. 19-22). However, neither Sakuma nor the Takahashi abstract
remedy the deficiency in Forrest. Since none of Forrest, Sakuma or the Takahashi
abstract disclose or suggest an apparatus comprising the separate inclination means
required by claim 4 and its dependent claims, the rejections of claims 5 and 7 under
§ 103 over Forrest in view of Sakuma and Forrest in view of the Takahashi abstract,
respectively, are reversed.
4. Rejection of claims 1-3, 9, 10, 12-15 and 17-19 under § 103 as unpatentable over
Bernoco in view of JP '161
Bernoco discloses that, when using a group of vessels disposed in rows in a
perpendicular arrangement, e.g., in a rectangle or a square on a support, the "agglutination
after centrifugating for any given kind of [agglutination] reaction is not the same for each
vessel" because it is impossible to arrange the axis of each vessel completely coaxially
with the direction of the centrifuging force (c. 1, ll. 21-40). Bernoco obviates this problem
by providing a process and apparatus wherein "the direction of the centrifugal force is
completely coaxial with the axis of the vessel" (c. 1, ll. 55-61). More specifically, in the
process of Bernoco
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