Appeal No. 1999-2182 Page 4
Application No. 08/710,704
formed of one piece and having a dispenser pump mounted at the top. The dispenser
further comprises a feed tube extending from the pump down to the container base and
having a foot adjacent to the container base, with the foot and the container base
comprising respective interlock portions presenting respective laterally-
directed surfaces which overlap axially in a close-fitting interlock
engagement to inhibit sideways movement of the feed tube in the container.
The examiner’s theory is that ENGLASS discloses all of the claimed subject matter except
for the laterally-directed surfaces, but that this is taught by Grothoff and it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to replace the dome-shaped dimple of ENGLASS
with the laterally-directed surfaces of Grothoff, thus meeting the terms of the claim. The
appellant provides several arguments in rebuttal, criticizing the examiner’s interpretation of
the showings in the references, and opining that there would have been no suggestion to
combine the references in the manner proposed by the examiner.
ENGLASS is merely a catalogue that illustrates several types of dispensing
containers in cross-section. The examiner refers to one labeled “HYBRID,” which has a
continuous base formed in one piece with the side wall and comprises an inwardly facing
dimple in the center of the bottom which, in the examiner’s view, interlocks with the bottom
of the pump tube. There is no explicit teaching in this reference of the purpose of the
dimple, that it solves any particular problem, or that, in fact, it engages the lower end of the
pump tube at all, much less that it inhibits its sideways movement. From our perspective,
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