Appeal No. 1999-0033
Application No. 08/514,255
additionally recites that “a deformation of the vane member in an impeller radial
direction is substantially unrestrained by the inner casing.”
A copy of the appealed claims is appended to appellants’ brief.
The following references are relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
anticipation in support of his rejections under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102(b), 102(e):
Ryall et al. (Ryall) 3,801,217 Apr. 2, 1974
O’Sullivan et al. (O’Sullivan) 5,456,577 Oct. 10, 1995
German 964,020 May 16, 19573
(German Patent)
Claims 1, 5, 8, 9 and 12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
anticipated by Ryall, claim 1 additionally stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as
being anticipated by O’Sullivan, and claim 8 additionally stands rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by the German reference.
Before considering the merits of the rejections, it is necessary to address two
matters: (1) the grouping of the appealed claims under 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7) as
amended effective April 21, 1995 and (2) an interpretation of certain language in claims 1
and 5.
With regard to the grouping of claims, 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7) applies only to the
rejection of claims 1, 5, 8, 9 and 12 based on the Ryall patent because this is the only
rejection currently involving two or more claims. Appellants have not disputed the
examiner’s position on page 3 of the answer that the brief does not contain a statement
that the appealed claims do not stand or fall together.
3 An English translation of this German reference is attached to this decision.
4
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