Appeal No. 2003-1575 Page 2
Application No. 09/420,306
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to a massaging apparatus for massaging body
areas of a person (specification, p. 1). A copy of the dependent claims under appeal is
set forth in the appendix to the appellant's brief. Claim 4, the only independent claim on
appeal, reads as follows:
A massaging apparatus, movable over the skin of a person in a given
operating direction, said apparatus comprising;
a suction chamber enclosing a suction space, said chamber comprising a
first and a second chamber wall, spaced from each other, and extending
substantially transverse to the operating direction and a third and a fourth
chamber wall, spaced from each other, extending substantially parallel to the
operating direction, and connected to the first and second chamber wall, said
suction chamber being open in an area for facing the skin,
a pump, for generating a partial vacuum inside the suction chamber for
forming a skin fold and drawing said skin fold into the suction chamber when the
massaging apparatus is disposed on the skin of a person, said pump
communicating with the suction chamber via an air-transfer duct,
two rollers, each having a circumferential surface for contacting the skin of
a person, each rotatable about a pair of roller axes extending transversely to the
operating direction,
a motor and drive transmission for driving the rollers in a same direction of
rotation, speed vectors of circumferential areas of the circumferential surfaces
which face said skin oriented opposite to the operating direction, one of the
rollers, disposed in the front of said apparatus, as viewed in the operating
direction, arranged inside the suction chamber, and the other of the rollers,
disposed in the rear of the apparatus, as viewed in the operating direction,
arranged outside of the suction chamber wherein;
the circumferential surface of the roller, disposed in the front of the
apparatus, as viewed in the operating direction, consists of as material having a
friction value higher than that of the material of the circumferential surface of the
roller, disposed in the rear of the apparatus, when viewed in the operating
direction.
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