Appeal 2006-2180
Application 10/752,180
Claim 1 illustrates Appellants’ invention of a floor cleaner device, and
is representative of the claims on appeal:
1. A floor cleaner device for cleaning a floor, the floor cleaner device
having a front and a rear, the floor cleaner device comprising:
a scrubber for wetting and cleaning the floor, the scrubber having a
front and a rear; and
a burnisher for burnishing the floor, the burnisher positioned in closer
proximity to the rear of the scrubber than to the front of the scrubber,
wherein the scrubber comprises a scrubber brush having an axis of rotation
substantially parallel to the floor and substantially perpendicular to an axis
running from the front to the rear of the floor cleaner device, said burnisher
comprising a burnisher pad and a motor for spinning the burnisher pad at a
speed at or above 1000 revolutions per minute, wherein the burnisher and
the scrubber are positioned relative to one another such that a front-most
point of the burnisher pad is located less than 40 centimeters from a rear-
most point of contact of the scrubber brush with the floor.
The references relied on by the Examiner are:
Mendelson US 2,622,254 Dec. 23, 1952
Hufton US 3,992,747 Nov. 23, 1976
Nagayama US 4,910,824 Mar. 27, 1990
Blehert US 5,093,955 Mar. 10, 1992
The Examiner has advanced the following grounds of rejection on
appeal:
claims 1, 4, 5, 9 through 11, 13 through 15, 44, and 51, 53, 56, 57, and
59 through 62 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Mendelson in view of Nagayama (Answer 3-5);
claims 2, 3, 6, 52, 54, 55, and 58 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Mendelson in view of Nagayama as applied to
claims 1 and 11, and further in view of Blehert (id. 5-6); and
claims 42 and 43 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Mendelson in view of Nagayama and Hufton (id. 6-7).
Appellants argue the appealed claims as a group, subsuming the
second and third grounds of rejection, which involve “tertiary” references,
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007