Appeal No. 2004-0323 Page 25
Application No. 09/716,045
In this rejection (final rejection, pp. 7-8), the examiner (1) ascertained that
Methfessel fails to teach the air generating means being a series of contiguous fans as
required by claim 7 and (2) concluded that it would have been obvious to one having
ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, in view of Louttit, to
manufacture the device of Methfessel as modified by Larsen as set forth above with a
series of controllable contiguous fans.
In our view, while the teachings of Louttit may have made it obvious at the time
the invention was made to a person of ordinary skill in the art to generate the air flow in
the device of Methfessel as modified by Larsen by means of a series of controllable
contiguous fans, such would not arrive at the subject matter of claim 7. In that regard,
none of the applied prior art is suggestive of "certain ones of said fans being turned off
so that the only ones of said fans being operated are within the then current diameter of
said chamber" as set forth in claim 7. Accordingly, the decision of the examiner to
reject claim 7 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Methfessel and
Larsen in view of Louttit is reversed.
With respect to claim 1, we have already affirmed the decision of the examiner to
reject claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Methfessel in view of
Larsen and see no need to affirm this rejection which additionally applies Louttit.
Page: Previous 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007