Appeal No. 2002-0177
Application No. 09/325,835
pump, is used for extracting the heat medium from the heat
medium passages defined in the reactor 1, the support base 2,
and sleeve 6. Part of the heat medium supplied through the heat
medium pipe 62 is also supplied to the reactant gas ejector head
5. (See column 8, lines 5-15 of Murakami). From this
disclosure, we are unable to conclude that a heater is embedded
in the reactant gas ejector head 5. Hence, we agree with
appellant’s interpretation of Murakami and we disagree with the
examiner’s interpretation of Murakami in this regard.
Therefore, we reverse this rejection.
III. The 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of Claims 12 and 14
As a preliminary matter, we note that claim 14 requires a
first and second showerhead plate. It appears that the examiner
has overlooked this aspect of claim 14 because, as discussed
under section IV of this decision, the examiner discusses this
particular subject matter in connection with claim 17, which
depends on claim 14. The examiner does not discuss this subject
matter in this rejection.
Appellant’s claim 12 requires that the showerhead plate
have apertures in the form of an array plurality of concentric
circles.
On page 10 of the brief, appellant argues that Ogi does not
show that the delivery aperture is comprised of a large diameter
bore and a smaller diameter bore.
Upon our view of Ogi, we find that, as stated by the
examiner on page 7 of the answer, Figure 4B of Ogi depicts
concentric circles. Hence we are in agreement with the examiner
that such a shape is known in the art.
We further note that Vukelic indicates at column 4,
beginning at line 35, that a perforated plate can have a
5
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