Appeal No. 2000-1416
Application No. 09/073,847
The patent to Danver teaches a lavatory sink with a
perforated coupling and strainer member fitting in the outlet
portion 3 thereof (Fig. 1). Figure 2 depicts the pattern of
holes in the perforated top portion 4 of the coupling and
strainer member.
The examiner takes “Official Notice” that changing the
size of water conduits affects the rate of flow, and that the
smaller the drain hole size in a drain plate the finer the
particles that will be removed from an outflow. We do not
take issue with these basic principles.
The difficulty we have with the examiner’s rejection is
that when we consider the Danver reference as a whole, while
setting aside what appellant has informed us of in the present
application, we do not perceive any suggestion in the Danver
teaching for selecting, in particular, a size of drain hole
greater than 6mm to about 10 mm in diameter. Accordingly, it
is clear to us that only reliance upon impermissible hindsight
would have enabled one having ordinary skill in the art to
derive the claimed invention on the basis of the Danver
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