Appeal No. 2006-0962 7
Application No. 10/117,981
reconstruct the claimed invention. A careful review of the
Hartman and Arbeus patents shows that appellants are correct in
their assessment of the § 103 rejection before us on appeal.
The express desire in Hartman is to provide a centrifugal
sludge pump that includes a single spiral blade impeller (42) and
what appear to be narrow, square grooves (50) in the inner
surface of the intake cover (21) that cooperate together to
effectively cut and shred solids, such as rope, rags, rubber,
etc., contained in the sludge liquids being pumped to thereby
avoiding clogging of the pump. By contrast, the express desire
in Arbeus is to eliminate cutting means that would cut and shred
the solid materials in the liquid being pumped and to rely
entirely on the cooperation between the specially configured
grooves/recesses (8) and strongly swept back vanes (5) of the
impeller to feed or move the solid pollutants outwards to the
periphery and towards the pump outlet. Indeed, as noted supra,
Arbeus specifically indicates that “[a]n important principle with
the invention is that the pollutants in the pumped liquid are not
disintegrated by cutting means.” Given the disparate nature and
objectives of the inventions described in Hartman and Arbeus, we
agree with appellants that there is no reasonable basis or
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