Appeal No. 2003-0653 Page 7
Application No. 09/861,268
The appellant has grouped claims 11 and 14 as standing or falling together and
has grouped claims 12 and 13 as standing or falling together.3 Thereby, in accordance
with 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7), claim 14 falls with claim 11 and claim 13 falls with claim 12.
Thus, it follows that the decision of the examiner to reject claims 13 and 14 under
35 U.S.C. § 102(a) is also affirmed.
With respect to claim 22, the appellant asserts that the Admitted Prior Art does
not have a tip end having a D-shaped cutout. We agree. In that regard, the imaginary
line drawn by the examiner in the blown up Figure 2B in the answer does not transform
the curved tip end 105A (a C-shaped cutout) into a D-shaped cutout. In our view, at a
minimum, a D-shaped cutout, consistent with the appellant's disclosure, requires both a
straight vertical side and side curved outwardly from the lower end of the straight
vertical side.
With respect to claims 23 and 24, the appellant asserts that the Admitted Prior
Art does not have a tip end including a tip raised above the cutout to protect a single D-
shaped blunt in the cutout from a passing fluid. We agree. As shown in Figures 1, 2A
and 2B, the curved tip end 105A does not include any portion raised above the cutout
3 See page 4 of the appellant's brief.
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Last modified: November 3, 2007