Appeal No. 2001-0628
Application No. 09/118,665
Knuttel, the examiner’s primary reference in this rejection,
discloses “an electromagnet for generating the static magnetic
field needed for NMR tomography [i.e., NMR imaging], with a coil
arrangement that generates an approximately homogenous magnetic
field in the internal space defined by said coil arrangement and
in which the body to be examined is located” (translation, page
3). Figure 3 illustrates a horizontally disposed electromagnet
21 wherein a patient lies on a table 23 designed for movement
into and out of the electromagnet, and Figures 4 and 5 depict
vertically disposed electromagnets 31 and 45 adapted to be
lowered over the upper body of a standing patient (Figure 4) or a
sitting patient (Figure 5).
Claims 59 through 68, 70, 71, 75, 77 through 80 and 88
through 91 recite methods wherein the patient is in either a
seated or a standing orientation, or wherein the imaging unit has
a chamber with an upright central axis. To meet these
limitations, the examiner relies on the electromagnet embodiments
shown in Figures 4 and 5 of the Knuttel reference. As implicitly
conceded by the examiner (see pages 4 through 7 in the answer),
however, these portions of the Knuttel disclosure do not respond
to the limitations in independent claim 59, or the corresponding
limitations in independent claims 64, 69 (from which claims 70
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