Appeal No. 2002-2065 Page 5
Application No. 09/398,688
The first is that GB 032 does not disclose or teach the “intermediate ring which
connects the flange ring with the arc-shaped ring and has a reduced diameter waist3-
like portion” (emphasis added). The examiner has not explained in the rejection exactly
where each of the structural elements recited in claim 16 is found in GB 032; the only
indication of this is found on a marked-up copy of Figure 1 of the reference, which
markings presumably were placed thereupon by the examiner. In this rendition of the
GB 032 vessel, the lowermost portion of upper rim 44 is provided with, to use the
language of the appellants’ claim 16, an arc-shaped ring (at numerals 3 and 15) which
abuts a section of the vessel body. However, considering the portion of rim 4 which lies
immediately above the arc-shaped ring portion to be the required “intermediate ring
which connects the flange ring with the arc-shaped ring,” and the remaining upper
portion of rim 4 to be the claimed “flange ring,” as in the labels placed on the drawing by
the examiner, results in there being no “reduced diameter waist-like portion” transcribed
by the intermediate ring. From our perspective, the only “waist-like portions” present in
GB 032 are where the arc-shaped rings (at numerals 3) engage the circular grooves in
the wall of the vessel which, of course, are not located in the intermediate rings.
3The common applicable definition of “waist” is “the part of something corresponding to or
resembling the human waist” (the narrowed part of the human body between the thorax and hips). See,
for example, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1973, page 1315.
4Lower rim 5 is essentially a mirror image of upper rim 4.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007