Appeal No. 1998-1435 Page 5
Application No. 08/132,584
the elongated slots 3a and 4c. In contrast, Appellants' claim
27 requires pressurizing the surrounding air distribution
plenum chamber with the heated air ...." (Appeal Br. at 7.)
The examiner answers, "the broad steps of drying a freshly
printed sheet including directing high velocity pressured air
to an exposure zone, heating the air, discharging the heated
air through rows of multiple outlet apertures via a tube and a
plenum chamber are obvious in view of the teachings of
Halley." (Examiner's Answer at 5.)
“‘[T]he main purpose of the examination, to which every
application is subjected, is to try to make sure that what
each claim defines is patentable. [T]he name of the game is
the claim ....’” In re Hiniker Co., 150 F.3d 1362, 1369,
47 USPQ2d 1523, 1529 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (quoting Giles S. Rich,
The Extent of the Protection and Interpretation of
Claims--American Perspectives, 21 Int'l Rev. Indus. Prop. &
Copyright L. 497, 499, 501 (1990)).
Here, claims 27-30 each specify in pertinent part the
following limitations: "heating high velocity air flowing
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