Appeal 2007-3583
Application 10/238,147
opening, with a sheet defining a plurality of caps, each cap including a
microbe-impermeable filter element that allows gas to flow into and out of
the interior volume of a well (Br. 2). Independent claim 20 is illustrative of
the invention and a copy of this claim is reproduced below:
20. A multi-well plate assembly that can be placed in a centrifuge,
comprising:
a multi-well plate defining a plurality of wells, each well defining an
opening and an interior volume; and
a sheet defining a plurality of caps, each of the caps including a
microbe-impermeable filter element that can allow gas flow into the interior
volume from external the multi-well plate and that can allow gas flow out
from the interior volume.
The Examiner has relied on the following prior art references as
evidence of obviousness:
Kidd US 5,958,778 Sep. 28, 1999
Gamble US 6,106,783 Aug. 22, 2000
ISSUES ON APPEAL
Claims 20-30 and 32-37 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
unpatentable over Kidd in view of Gamble (Answer 3).
Appellants contend that the combination of Kidd with Gamble would
not result in a multi-well assembly as recited in claim 20, since modifying
Gamble’s caps to include the filter of Kidd would result in gas flow in and
out from a glass vial 113 rather than the well as claimed (Br. 3).
Appellant contends that there is no motivation to employ the caps of
Kidd in Gamble’s multi-well plate assembly, since Gamble solves the
problem of cross-contamination (Br. 4; Reply Br. 2).
2
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