Appeal No. 2002-1853 Page 8
Application No. 09/340,339
Claim 22 adds to claim 1 the requirement that the cylinder head be formed with a
cooling jacket, and at least one tubular member extend through the cooling jacket and
receive at least one of the spark plug and the injector. The examiner is of the view that
such an arrangement is shown in Figures 1-9 of Tsuchida ‘638 (Answer, page 6).
While cooling passages in the head are not identified in the text of this reference, it is
our opinion that one of ordinary skill in the art would have appreciated that a cooling
jacket is present in Figures 2, 3 and 7 in the form of unnumbered cavities in the cylinder
head (the numeral 55 is located in such a cavity in Figure 3), through which tubular
members containing a spark plug and an injector extend. The appellants have not
argued that Tsuchida ‘638 fails to disclose the claimed cooling passages and tubular
members, but have stated only that “the examiner has not really discussed this feature
of the invention” (Brief, page 5). In the absence of an explanation by the appellants of
why Tsuchida ‘638 fails to disclose the structure added to claim 1 by claim 22, we will
sustain this rejection. Claim 23 depends from claim 22 and calls for both the fuel
injector and spark plug to be so mounted. As we pointed out above, this appears to be
the case in Tsuchida ‘638, and we will sustain the rejection of this claim on the same
basis as claim 22.
Claims 11 and 12 stand rejected as being unpatentable over the two references
cited against claim 1 et al., taken further with Tsuchida ‘038. Claim 11 is a dependent
claim which requires that the cylinder head arrangement contain a pair of spark plugs.
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