Appeal No. 2005-2101 4
Application No. 09/922,504
an elevated basic pressure for the breathing gas, with a plurality of breaths superimposed
on the elevated basic pressure and an increased breathing rate. See page 3 of the
answer for a full statement of the examiner’s position.
Like appellant, we note that the Bird patent has no express disclosure relating to a
“recruitment phase” or with regard to a “control unit for controlling said inspiratory unit and
said expiratory valve to regulate a flow of breathing gas by generating a recruitment phase
with an elevated basic pressure for said breathing gas, with a plurality of breaths
superimposed on said elevated basic pressure and an increased breathing rate with no
withdrawal of said breathing gas,” as set forth in appellant’s independent claim 1. The
valve (143) pointed to by the examiner in Figure 1 of Bird is part of the oscillatory diffusion
module (12) and identified as an “expiratory metering valve” (col. 9, line 48) which is
connected via its inlet port (142) to receive gas from an inspiratory metering valve (139)
and which has an outlet port (147) connected to a reservoir service socket (64) and thence
to a bag-like entrainment reservoir (69). Operation of the expiratory metering valve (143)
is discussed in column 15, lines 10-56, of the Bird patent and seems to relate to creation of
a “pneumatic clock” (col. 15, lines 22-23) which determines the bleed down rate of the
diaphragmatic servoing pressure in the oscillator cartridge (123) and determines how long
the oscillator cartridge gate valve remains closed.
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