Appeal No. 1998-1215
Application No. 08/091,039
Rejections Pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b)
(A) Claims 40 and 43 are rejected for failing to comply with
the second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112. Each of these claims
recites "wherein the tank includes a floor, a lower-most
portion of the floor being the tank bottom." This language
implies that there is a floor structure which, other than at
its lower-most portion, is separate from the tank bottom, but
the scope of the claims is indefinite when one attempts to
read them on the disclosure (cf. In re Cohn, 438 F.2d 989,
993, 169 USPQ 95, 98 (CCPA 1971)) because there is no
disclosure of a floor separate from the bottom of the tank 10,
but rather, the bottom of the tank and the floor seem to be
used in the specification as interchangeable terms. See,
e.g., page 8, lines 28, 31, 32
and 34.
(B) Claims 25, 28, 29, 33, 34 and 40 are rejected under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over the APA in view of
Wallace.
The relevant portion of appellant’s disclosure of what
was known at the time of his invention may be summarized as
follows:
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