Appeal No. 2005-2646
Application No. 09/948,377
1. An oil filter for cooling oil comprising: circular fins permanently incorporated
and limited to the top of an oil filter, wherein said circular fins are 360 degrees starting in
the center and increasing in diameter to the outer top edge, wherein said circular fins
are rectangular in shape from bottom to top.
The references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting claim 1 are:
Mitterer 2,191,490 Feb. 27, 1940
Bartalone et al. (Bartalone) 5,718,281 Feb. 17, 1998
Claim 1 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph, as being
indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which
applicant regards as the invention. In particular, the examiner points to lines 4-5 of
claim 1 and urges that the language therein is indefinite “because it is not clearly
understood what it means by the circular fins being rectangular in shape from bottom to
top” (final rejection, page 2).
Claim 1 also stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Bartalone in view of Mitterer.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by appellant and the
examiner regarding the above-noted rejections, we refer to the final rejection (mailed
February 18, 2004) and the answer (mailed February 4, 2005) for a complete exposition
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