Appeal No. 2002-0263
Application No. 09/377533
least all of the above features with the following exception:
a water diffuser attached to the flexible water tube in place
of the recited means for spraying.
The examiner concludes that the combined teachings of the
Goda, Weston, and Dempsey patents would have been suggestive
of the now claimed hand-held plant watering device used for
watering difficult to reach plants. We disagree.
The basic teaching to be modified by the examiner is a
liquid dispensing device characterized by the patentee Goda as
a burette, pipette or syringe used in scientific and
industrial laboratories for dispensing known volumes of liquid
(column 1, lines 9 through 17). As depicted (Figs. 1 and 2)
and disclosed (column 4, lines 13 through 26), a hypodermic
needle for dispensing liquid is immersed in a reservoir of
liquid to fill the device. Goda is clearly not a device used
for watering difficult to reach plants.
To compensate for the deficiencies of the Goda teaching,
the examiner looks to the respective patents to Weston and
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