Appeal No. 2005-2545
Application No. 10/447,582
DISCUSSION
I. The 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) rejection of claims 32, 33, 35-43 and 45-49 as being
unpatentable over Boje in view of Besemer
Boje discloses a system for storing and testing laboratory specimens. The
system consists of an “organizer for storing, organizing and manipulating laboratory
containers” (column 1, lines 8 and 9), and a conveyor adjacent the organizer for linking
it to various testing stations. The organizer 10 includes an enclosed housing 12, a
storage area 28 within the housing, a plurality of trays 52 movably disposed in the
storage area, a like plurality of test tube racks 46 mounted on the trays, an input/output
unit 32 having a robotic arm 34 for accessing the storage area and the conveyor, a test
tube rack 46 on the housing adjacent the conveyor for receiving and temporarily
retaining test tubes 40 as they are moved between the storage area and conveyor, a
bar code reader 78 on the housing 12 for reading bar codes 76 associated with the
racks 46 in the storage area, and a keyboard 84 and monitor 86 for inputting information
relating to the specimen racks and the manner in which the organizer is to be operated.
The conveyor comprises a track 36 extending between the organizer and the testing
stations and a plurality of individual specimen carriers 38 movably mounted on the track
for transporting respective test tubes. The robot arm 34 moves test tubes between (1)
3
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