Appeal No. 1999-0706 Page 4
Application No. 1999-0706
and the supporting portion (answer, page 3). To overcome this deficiency, the examiner relies
on the teachings of Robinson.1
Robinson teaches offsetting the head (the portion of the curette which supports the
scraping surface) of a curette relative to the stem thereof in order to facilitate placement of the
head in engagement with a wall (the tissue surface to be scraped) without the need for lateral
manipulation of the curette and the associated discomfort to the patient (column 1, lines 5-13).
We agree with the examiner that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art,
in view of the teachings of Robinson, to have angled the supporting portion of the Potti tongue
scraper relative to the shank portion in order to obtain the self-evident advantages thereof
(namely, to facilitate engagement of the supporting portion, which carries the scraping edge
portion, with the downwardly sloping posterior portion of the tongue without the need for
manipulation of the shank portion up to the roof of the mouth and the discomfort associated
therewith).
Appellants argue (brief, pages 5 and 6), in effect, that the curette disclosed by Robinson
is for use on a patient by highly trained medical personnel rather than by ordinary individuals
on themselves and, further, is directed to unrelated and remote parts of the human body and not
specifically to the tongue. Thus, according to appellants, Robinson is non-analogous art to the
instant invention. For the following reasons, we do not find this argument persuasive.
1While the examiner also finds that Potti lacks the edge portion being contoured to have a relatively deep
central portion, this feature is not recited in claim 1.
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