Appeal 2006-3201
Application 10/689,951
anticipation of the invention claimed in the appellants’
claim 13 and its dependent claim 14.
Claims 2 and 12
Claims 2 and 12 require that the active component is a
light emitting diode.
McCulloch discloses a capacitive level sensor for a
cryogenic tank (100) (col. 1, lines 6-9; col. 5, line 8). The
capacitances are read by a controller having on its display
panel light emitting diodes that indicate the status of control
and alarm setpoints such as high level and low level (col. 7,
line 47 – col. 8, line 7).
The examiner argues that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art to use McCulloch’s light emitting
diode in Sillat’s system to act as an active component for
determining the presence of fluid (answer, pages 3-4). The
appellants’ claims require that the active component is a
component of a sensor, whereas McCulloch’s light emitting diode
is a component of a display panel. The examiner has not
explained how a disclosure of a light emitting diode on a
display panel would have led one of ordinary skill in the art
to use the light emitting diode as an active component of any
sensor, let alone Sillat’s manometers.
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