Appeal No. 2007-0737
Application No. 10/290,606
provide increased resistance to deformation in the lateral direction.” (Col. 2,
ll. 19-24.) The container can also be constructed to have “a bottom 32 of
relatively thin thickness in comparison to the thickness of the sidewall 30.”
(Col. 2, ll. 37-39.)
3) Burnham discloses a receptacle for holding refrigerated units of ice
cream for individual servings. The receptacle comprises two hinged parts
which, “when disposed face-to-face define an enclosure of predetermined
shape for holding a molding of hardenable substance.” (Col. 1, ll. 17-21.)
“The enclosure is comprised of a thin wall yieldably flexible plastic such as
to enable displacing a portion of the wall inwardly of the part containing the
frozen substance when the parts have been separated from each other to
enable ejecting the hardenable substance therefrom.” (Col. 1, ll. 23-28.)
In addition to showing what was conventional at the time the
application was filed, these disclosures also establish that the ordinary
skilled worker was familiar with making deformable containers to discharge
hardened foods, and was capable of making several different designs,
including designs in which 1) the sides were made more rigid than the
deformable bottom by varying the material thickness (e.g., Donovan), 2) the
sides and deformable bottom were of the same deformability (Burnham),
and 3) the sides were made more rigid by adding structure to increase their
resistance (Donovan). Thus, making a deformable container using different
design strategies was commensurate with the level of ordinary skill in the art
at the time the claimed invention was made.
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