Appeal No. 2000-1961
Application 08/840,200
Claim 15
The examiner finds that Hill teaches the claimed invention
except for the audio detector. The examiner finds that Yumoto
discloses this feature and concludes that it would have been
obvious to utilize the techniques of Hill in the environment of
Yumoto because steam traps generally include a valve body and the
techniques of Hill would be useful in steam trap monitoring
(FR18).
Appellants argue that "Claims 12, 13, and 15 depend directly
and indirectly from Claim 1 and are distinguished over the
references for the reasons already advanced with regard to the
inapplicability of the teachings of Hill and Yumoto to
Applicants' invention" (Br22). It is argued that the examiner
proposes combining Hill and Yumoto is a way suggested only by
appellants' disclosure and Hill could not be modified as
suggested by the examiner without changing the basis operation an
use of the Hill system (Br22).
This argument is inaccurate as to claim 15 because claim 15
is an independent claim. Claim 15 recites a "self-contained"
monitor for analyzing and signaling the operation of a steam trap
in the preamble, but, unlike claim 1, does not recite in the body
"a housing for assembling said system in a unitary assembly in
operative communication with said mechanism." We will not give
patentable weight to "self-contained" in the preamble because
- 22 -
Page: Previous 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007