Appeal No. 2004-2159
Application No. 09/819,943
substrate." While appellants point out that the heat-transfer of
the reference rod is poor in the longitudinal direction, the
broadly claimed thermally conductive substrate does not require
anything more than poor heat-transfer in the longitudinal
direction. Also, appellants have not refuted the examiner's
logical argument that "the operation of Petersen relies on a
thermally conductive rod 30 to transfer heat from a resistor to
bring temperature sensitive resistors to a first temperature
(which are cooled by contact with a liquid thus resulting in a
liquid level determination), and would be inoperative with a
thermally insulating rod" (page 6 of Answer, first paragraph).
Appellants also contend that Petersen does not describe the
claim 11 limitation of an "intermediate sensor having a vertical
dimension sufficiently large such that said temperature signal
will vary in proportion to said longitudinal portion of said
intermediate sensor thermally coupled to the liquid." However,
we concur with the examiner that the embodiments of Petersen
depicted in Figures 3 and 4 meet the claim requirements for
upper, intermediate and lower sensors. Intermediate sensors 19
and 20 of Figure 3 and 27 and 28 of Figure 4 have a greater
dimension in the longitudinal direction, and we agree with the
examiner that "[s]ince the resistors of Figures 3 or 4 are stated
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