Appeal No. 2001-0073
Application 08/966,894
a housing having an interior region and a top panel
covering said interior region, wherein said interior region
is devoid of both foam and ink supply tubing;
a luer-lock fitting molded into said top panel, wherein
said luer-lock fitting defines an opening into said interior
region for fluid communication therewith, and wherein said
luer-lock fitting is configured to mate in a substantially
air tight seal with a mating luer-lock fitting on an ink
supply tube provided as part of said ink jet printer.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Erickson 5,367,328 November 22, 1994
McAffer et al. (McAffer) 5,454,409 October 3, 1995
Claims 22-26 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Erickson and McAffer.
We refer to the final rejection (Paper No. 9) (pages
referred to as "FR__") and the examiner's answer (Paper No. 13)
(pages referred to as "EA__") for a statement of the examiner's
rejection, and to the brief (Paper No. 12) (pages referred to as
"Br__") and reply brief (Paper No. 14) (pages referred to as
"RBr__") for a statement of appellants' arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
Factual findings
Erickson, figures 1 and 6, discloses a disposable ink jet
cartridge 12 which is refillable from an external ink reservoir
container 14 via flexible tubing 110 (which is part of the
connecting piping system 16). The flexible tubing 110
corresponds to the claimed "ink supply tube." A formable but
- 3 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007