Appeal No. 2006-1798
Application No. 09/966,413
language "[t]he sustainer 82 is mounted at the candle floor" does not say anything
about attachment of the wick support. From the additional disclosure of Pappas
that "which for the candle 80 is the surface upon which the bottom of the wax fuel
of the candle 80 is resting. The surface can be an attached plate," we find that the
wick support is mounted at the surface, which is a plate. Since "mounted at" can
include some form of attachment, such as "to place, fix, or fasten on or in the
proper support, backing, etc. for the required purpose1" we find that the disclosure
of mounting the wick support at the surface would have been suggestive of
attaching the wick support to the surface, to an artisan. Accordingly, we do not
agree with appellant that the above discussed portions of Pappas only recite that
the candle is attached to the plate. Nor are we persuaded by appellant's assertion
(brief, page 7) that "none of the freestanding candle embodiments have a plate or
sheet attached to the bottom of the candle, except figures 13 and 14, as appellant
has stated, reply brief, page 4) that figure 9 of Pappas describes the bottom of the
wax fuel can be attached to a plate.
From all of the above, we hold that the embodiment of figure 9 of Pappas,
including the plate at the bottom of the candle, meets the limitations of claim 1, and
are not convinced of any error on the part of the examiner in rejecting claims 1, 3,
5-13, 16, 17, and 24 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Pappas.
Before turning to claim 4, we note that we further sustain the rejection of claims 1,
3, 5-13, 16, 17, and 24 under an additional rationale. Claim 1 uses the transitional
1 Webster's New World Dictionary, © 1972. A copy of the pertinent pages is attached to the
Decision.
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