Appeal No. 2004-1197
Application No. 10/041,430
Claim 1 sets forth a novelty device, comprising, inter alia,
a gas sensor for detecting at least one gas emitted with a bowel
movement. Claim 10 is drawn to a novelty device, comprising,
inter alia, a circuit that includes a gas sensor for detecting
gas emitted with a bowel movement. Claim 17 specifies a method
of operation for a novelty device, comprising, inter alia, the
step of sensing ambient air surrounding an automated character
for gas emitted with a bowel movement.
Based upon the prior art applied by the examiner, the
difficulty we readily perceive with the proposed combination of
teachings is that it does not appear to us that it would have
been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, absent
appellant's own teaching in this application, to modify the toy
bird mechanism of Saitoh, which includes an external stimulus
sensor responsive to sound, light, and the like, to provide a
sensor sensing gas emitted with a bowel movement. As we see it,
the Agelatos ventilation system for a toilet that provides a
transducer for sensing methane and starting a fan and motor
ventilation process would not have motivated one having ordinary
skill in the art to modify a toy bird mechanism as disclosed by
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