Ex parte RASHMAN et al. - Page 10




          Appeal No. 1999-0455                                                        
          Application 08/635,483                                                      


          well known and sized sound conducting tubes including 42 gram               
          wall tubing.  Alternatively, the examiner finds that there is               
          no evidence that 40-44 gram wall tubing was not the result of               
          routine experimentation or that 40-44 gram wall tubing is                   
          critical to the invention.  With respect to the declarations                
          filed under 37 CFR § 1.132, the examiner finds that these                   
          declarations do not provide evidence of unexpected results                  
          [answer, pages 6-9].                                                        
          We agree with the position argued by appellants.                            
          First, appellants are correct that there is no specific                     
          disclosure of 40-44 gram wall tubing in either Smithline,                   
          Kebel, Tynan ’989 or Tynan ’827.  The most that these                       
          references disclose is that the stethoscopes disclosed therein              
          use conventional rubber tubing.  There is no indication of                  
          what is conventional rubber tubing for a stethoscope.  The                  
          Thorne Declaration states that most single tube stethoscopes                
          use industry standard “Y” shaped PVC tubing of approximately                
          30-32 grams of weight [paragraph 4].  This evidence is not                  
          contested by the examiner.  The Wells Declaration details what              
          appellants argue is the extensive experimentation performed to              
          find that 40-44 gram wall tubing provided the best results.                 
                                          10                                          





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007