Appeal No. 1998-3309 3
Application No. 08/618,306
Claim 15, the only independent claim, calls for an
applicator for a product of a viscous consistency, the
applicator comprising, inter alia, a cylindrical container body
having a first end and a rigid and non-deformable porous
application element fitted on the first end of the cylindrical
body and having pores which communicate with one another in all
directions.
We observe that, in the embodiment illustrated in Figure 2,
Hall discloses a device for dispensing “wax shoe polish” (p. 2,
l. 26) or “fluid wax” (id. at l. 39) including a tube 9 closed
at one end by a cap 11 and at the other end by a screw threaded
cap 10. An apertured member 16 and a polishing pad 17 of
opened-cell polyurethane foam (id. at ll. 15-17) are retained by
the cap 10. In use, a screw threaded stem 12 is rotated by way2
of a knob 14 moving a piston 13 toward the cap 10 and forcing
the wax through the apertures in member 16 and through the
applicator pad 17 so that the wax may be applied to the shoes.
Hall clearly lacks any teaching or suggestion that the
application element 17 is “rigid and non-deformable.” To the
2With regard to the Figure 2 embodiment, Hall states
that “[a] polishing pad 17 of polyurethane plastic,
corresponding to the disc 7 is again used to form the
applicator.” See p. 2.
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