Appeal No. 2000-1449
Application No. 08/838,133
The standing rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 of claims
21, 22, 28, 34-36, 41 and 43
Claims 21, 22, 28, 34-36, 41 and 43 have been separately
argued. See pages 14-15 of the main brief.
Claim 21 is directed to a modification of the seal feature
illustrated in Figure 10. Specifically, claim 21 sets forth that
the at least one seal flange “is discontinuous.”3 The examiner’s
position (answer, page 6) to the effect that this feature is taught
by Sander and/or Arona-Delonghi is not well taken. Further, we are
in agreement with appellant that this feature also is not taught or
suggested by Thomas. Accordingly, it is our view that the examiner
has not established a prima facie case of obviousness of claim 21.
Claim 22 is directed to the plug element feature of the
push-pull pour spout illustrated in Figure 10A. Specifically,
claim 22 calls for the plug to comprise a circular disk and a
depending skirt extending from the disk to define a hollow cavity
within the plug. The examiner states (answer, page 8) that this
feature is taught by Sanders; however, we do not agree. Because we
do not view the combined teachings of Sander, Arona-Delonghi and
3In order to bring the drawings into compliance with 37 CFR
§ 1.83(a), this claimed feature should be illustrated in the
drawings.
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