Appeal No. 2004-0615
Application No. 08/761,063
the fluid in the test unit and would have fairly suggested, to
one of ordinary skill in the art, using Cottingham’s top film 72
in Takase’s test unit to perform that function.
The appellants argue that Takase discloses grooves or
troughs and does not disclose microchannels (brief, page 12). As
indicated by the dictionary definitions of record, a groove is a
channel. The appellants’ “[m]icrochannel sizes can range from
0.1 m [sic, 0.1 mm] to a value close to the 1mm thickness of the
disk”, and preferably “the cross-sectional dimension of the
the [sic] microchannels across the thickness dimention [sic] of
the platform is less than 500:m [0.5 mm]” (specification,
page 12, lines 6-7 and 8-11). Cottingham’s microchannels, which
are of the type disclosed in U.S. patent application
no. 08/213,304, issued as patent no. 5,783,148 (Cottingham,
col. 19, lines 3-6), are about 0.006 inches [0.152 mm] high
(‘148 patent, col. 4, lines 15-16). Takase’s exemplified flow
paths are 1-10 mm wide, 50-100 mm long and 0.1-2 mm deep, and
Takase teaches that the width and length are not limited (col. 5,
lines 52-56). Because the depth of Takase’s flow paths can be
the same as those of the appellants’ and Cottingham’s
microchannels, and the lowest exemplified width of Takase’s flow
paths is comparable to the appellants’ preferred microchannel
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