Appeal No. 2003-0161
Application No. 09/578,575
thereof. See In re Donaldson, 16 F.3d 1189, 1195, 29 USPQ2d
1845, 1850 (Fed. Cir. 1994). The means for holding crates of
milk disclosed in the appellants’ specification is a container,
having a bottom and side walls, surrounding the crates
(figure 2). The appellants’ disclosure does not require that the
crates are of any particular size, and the appellants acknowledge
that “[c]rates of other items such as bottled water, fruit
drinks, food products, soft drinks or beer that are suitably
sized could also be located in the server in appropriate
circumstances” (brief, page 3).
Thus, the body (1) of Hotta’s constant temperature box,
having a bottom and side walls (figure 2), is the corresponding
structure in the appellants’ specification to “means for holding
crates of milk” in the appellants’ claim 18. Hotta does not
disclose that the box is sufficiently large to be capable of
holding crates of milk. However, Hotta teaches that such
constant temperature boxes can be large in size for storing
significant amounts of foodstuffs and beverages (col. 1,
lines 30-32). This teaching would have fairly suggested, to one
of ordinary skill in the art, a constant temperature box having a
sufficient size for storing the desired significant amount of
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