Appeal No. 2000-1327
Application No. 08/402,624
What the prior art does not disclose is a water gun having both
an expandable pressure reservoir for expanding upon storing water
therein so as to exert a force upon the water for subsequently
expelling it and an onboard manually actuated pump for pumping
water and air from an onboard storage tank to the expandable
pressure reservoir.
There is no dispute that Johnson discloses the invention
claimed in claims 1-3, 5-9, 11-15, 17 and 18 with the exception
of the expandable pressure reservoir. There also is no dispute
that Shindo and Salmon disclose expandable pressure reservoirs
that function in the same manner as the expandable pressure
reservoir of the claimed invention to expel water. However,
based on a careful reconsideration of appellant’s arguments as
focused through the lens of appellant’s evidence of
nonobviousness, we now consider that it would not have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of
appellant’s invention to selectively combine these reference
teachings in a manner that would result in the presently claimed
subject matter.
As may be appreciated from a review of the Johnson I and
Johnson II declarations, prior art water guns at the time of
appellant’s invention were not entirely satisfactory in providing
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