Appeal No. 2004-0096 Page 5
Application No. 09/785,273
inside surface of the side of the water pail 20. This detailed description of the invention
mentions nothing about the air passageway or bisection member being “detachable” or
“detachably adhered” to the outlet. Nevertheless, page 4 of appellant’s specification
cites as one of the advantages of appellant’s invention that, “since the air passageway
is detachably formed, it is possible to facilitate cleaning thereof.” Accordingly, it is not
apparent from this written description how the air passageway or bisection member is
secured on the container or whether or to what degree such securement is detachable
and appellant’s drawing Figures 2a, 2b, 3 and 4 do nothing to clarify this point.3 While
the summary of the invention on page 2 of appellant’s brief states that the bisection
member 31 “bisects the outlet and has a width equal to a dimension of the outlet such
that the edges of the bisection member frictionally engage the outlet to adhere the
bisection member to the outlet” and claim 3, which was not an original claim, contains a
similar recitation, Figure 2b in appellant’s application appears to illustrate the bisection
member 31 having a width which is less than the diameter of the outlet and edges
which meet the inner surface of the outlet 10 at points which are not diametrically
opposed, thereby implying that frictional engagement of the bisection member with the
outlet is not the means of adherence of the bisection member and air passageway to
the container.
3 We also note that the reference numerals 31 and 32 appear to be reversed in Figure 4.
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