Appeal No. 2005-2408 Παγε 6
Application No. 09/783,548
We will not sustain this rejection because in our view, there is no motivation to
combine the teachings of Daneshvar and Mitra. The structures respectively disclosed
by Daneshvar and Mitra differ markedly in terms of their construction. The heating unit
24 of Daneshvar is intended to contain hot water which produces steam that is inhaled
by the user. It is apparent from a reading of the Daneshvar disclosure that the mask
and heating unit 24 can be used for an unlimited period of time and for numerous uses
by simply maintaining a supply of hot water in the heating unit 24. Mitra on the other
hand describes a strip that is placed over the nose which includes a thermal unit 36
comprised of an exothermic substance which remains hot for several hours. As such, it
is not apparent to us why a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated
to modify the multi use device of Daneshvar so as to be limited to one several hour use.
In addition, there is no disclosure in Mitra that the exothermic substance used in the
thermal unit 36 releases steam so as to motivate a person of ordinary skill in the art to
substitute a thermal unit 36, as taught by Mitra, for the Daneshvar heating unit 24.
Likewise, there is no teaching in Mitra that the thermal unit 36 produces enough heat to
heat water so that the water produces steam, to motivate a person of ordinary skill in
the art to substitute a thermal unit 36, as taught by Mitra, for the Daneshvar heating unit
24. In fact, as the thermal unit 36 is placed close to the skin of the wearer, one of
ordinary skill in the art would be lead to believe that the exothermic substance in the
thermal unit 36 does not get hot enough to cause water to produce steam. The only
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