Appeal No. 2003-0729
Application 08/914,346
Seborg, Dale E. et al., Process Dynamics and Control, pp. 183-194
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1989) (Seborg)
THE REJECTION
Claims 12 through 24 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as being unpatentable over Zhekov in view of Seborg.
Attention is directed to the appellants’ main and reply
briefs (Paper Nos. 24 and 26) and to the examiner’s answer (Paper
No. 29) for the respective positions of the appellants and the
examiner regarding the merits of this rejection.1
DISCUSSION
Zhekov, the examiner’s primary reference, discloses a beer
brewing apparatus and method involving automatic control of a
ripper to dislodge the mash layer in a filter vat, whereby “the
flow-rate of the filtered wort is stabilized, and its magnitude
is corrected” (translation, page 2). In Zhekov’s words:
[t]he filter vat 1 is equipped with a ripper 2,
which has a drive and a lifting mechanism 3, a bank of
filtration valves 4, a filtration pressure regulator
comprising the feed tank 5, which is connected through
the filtration valves to the subsieve space of the
filtering vat by means of a collector pipe 6 of the
centralized drain, [and] of the tubes 7 for the
measuring of the level in the filtering vat and the
feed tank.
1 The record contains an English language translation of the
Zhekov reference prepared by the USPTO. The arguments advanced
in the briefs indicate that the appellants possess a copy of the
translation.
3
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