Appeal No. 1998-1418
Application 08/313,249
proximity to the bottom wall and/or side wall of their respective
liquid reservoirs.
Hughes discloses a gas powered nebulizer used in the
medical field. Figure 3 shows a liquid supply tube 68 and its
close proximity to the walls of the contoured bottom 14 of the
vessel 12.
As recited on page 7 in the final rejection, it is the
examiner’s position that the aforementioned four (4) foreign
patents teach “the concept of having a feed tube go to the
deepest bottom of the fluid reservoir so as to not waste the
fluid . . . .”
In analyzing claim 38, it appears that the ultrasonic
atomizer per se, is well known as shown in Anthony and Takahashi.
Therefore, the only issue appears to be directed to the proximity
of the lower end of the pump shaft in relation to the side sur-
face of the liquid vessel. It is the examiner’s position that
although the “about 2-3 mm” is not explicitly stated in the prior
art references, “it would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art to have determined the optimum arrangement of
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