Appeal No. 2005-0247 Page 5
Application No. 10/171,657
positions of the examiner or the appellants in toto, we focus on the two points of
contention therebetween, which follow:
- annular bubble with virtual chamber
- ink ejection.
1. Annular Bubble with Virtual Chamber
The examiner makes the following findings.
Campbell describes the operation of the heater with respect to Fig. 2 at
Col. 3:50-66). Campbell teaches that the bubble normally forms on both
elongated portions (23) to form bubbles (26a) and on both end portions to
form bubbles (26b). The bubbles continue to grow and stick together at
the perimeter (emphasis added) and at the center during bubble growth,
until a pillow-shaped bubble is formed. Extending this teaching to the
embodiment of Fig. 3, it can be seen that the bubbles will form around the
perimeter of the annular heater (12). At some point in time, the bubbles
will have formed around the perimeter of the heater, but will not have
reached sufficient size to fill-in the open, center portion of the heater. At
this time, the claimed virtual chamber would exist.
(Examiner's Answer at 7.) The appellants make the following argument.
[D]ue to the elongated form of Campbell's heating element, an annular
bubble will not be formed. Instead, when the bubbles 26a and 26b
coalesce into a single bubble, a pillow shaped bubble 22 is formed,
wherein the central portion of bubble 22 pertaining to bubbles 26a, having
been formed faster than the portions pertaining to bubbles 26b, will have a
higher level in the ink. Due to this level of the bubble 22 being higher that
the other portions of the bubble, no virtual chamber (pocket) is formed and
there is no ink, only air, within the bubble.
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