Appeal No. 2003-0161
Application No. 09/578,575
Hotta’s cooling device is a container (3) which is
positioned within the box adjacent to the food or beverage items
(figure 2). The cooling container can be made of synthetic resin
(col. 2, lines 59-61) and can be filled with water and frozen
(col. 2, lines 62-65). Synthetic resins can be thermoplastic
materials.4
Hotta’s cooling container is an equivalent structure to the
appellants’ freezer panels because, as discussed below, it
performs the same function in substantially the same way to
produce substantially the same result.
The function of the appellants’ freezer panels is to cool
and maintain food or beverage items at a chilled temperature
(specification, page 3, lines 1-2 and 10-12). Hotta’s cooling
container performs this same function (col. 1, lines 4-8; col. 2,
lines 50-52).
The way the appellants’ freezer panels function to cool and
maintain the food or beverage items at a chilled temperature is
by absorbing heat from the food or beverage items, through the
thermoplastic freezer panel wall, into frozen saline solution
enclosed by the freezer panel wall (page 6, lines 12-15).
4 See Hackh’s, supra note 3, at 579.
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