Appeal No. 2001-2423
Application 08/931,253
v. Sumitomo Electric, 868 F.2d 1251, 1255-56, 9 USPQ2d 1962, 1965
(Fed. Cir. 1989).
Sparrow discloses a thermocouple having a rod (17) secured
at an end (18) thereof to a closed end (16) of a tube (14) by
welding or a similar technique (page 1, right column, lines 3-
16). The rod and the tube have dissimilar thermoelectric
characteristics such that they form a thermocouple (e.g., the
tube is copper and the rod is constantan) (page 1, right column,
lines 10-16). The outer end of the rod is welded to a copper
rod (20) at a junction (21) so as to form a second thermocouple
(page 1, right column, lines 16-19). The copper rod extends
beyond an open end of the tube (figure).
The appellant’s claim 1, which is the only independent
claim, requires that an end face of a rod of a first metal is
fixed against an inner face of a closed end of a tubular sheath,
and that the other end of this rod is beyond an open end of the
tubular sheath. To meet this requirement the examiner relies
upon what the examiner calls Sparrow’s “rod 17/20" (answer, page
8). Sparrow’s rods 17 and 20, however, are separate rods made of
different materials such that they form a thermocouple (page 1,
right column, lines 14-19). Rod 17 does not extend beyond an
open end of the sheath, and rod 20 is not fixed against an inner
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