Ex Parte Kim et alDownload PDFBoard of Patent Appeals and InterferencesApr 16, 201210923784 - (D) (B.P.A.I. Apr. 16, 2012) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 10/923,784 08/24/2004 Kwang Soo Kim 9988.138.00 6717 30827 7590 04/16/2012 MCKENNA LONG & ALDRIDGE LLP 1900 K STREET, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20006 EXAMINER PERRIN, JOSEPH L ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1711 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 04/16/2012 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS AND INTERFERENCES ____________ Ex parte KWANG SOO KIM and JAE MUN KIM ____________ Appeal 2011-006889 Application 10/923,784 Technology Center 1700 ____________ Before BRADLEY R. GARRIS, KAREN M. HASTINGS, and DEBORAH KATZ, Administrative Patent Judges. GARRIS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appeal 2011-006889 Application 10/923,784 2 Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner's decision rejecting claims 6, 7, 11, 12, and 16-24. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6. We REVERSE. Appellants claim a method of performing a drying cycle for laundry which comprises rotating a laundry drum using at least two different rotational speeds, "wherein the drum is periodically rotated at each of the two different rotational speeds and periodically stopped for a predetermined period of time, to evenly distribute the laundry from a start point of the drying cycle and continuing to an endpoint thereof" (independent claims 6, 11). Representative claim 6 reads as follows: 6. A method of performing a drying cycle in a washing machine having a drum accommodating a laundry and a sensor for detecting a temperature of an air flowing in the drum, comprising: rotating the drum at a first rotational speed; and rotating the drum using at least two different rotational speeds during a cycle for drying the laundry within the drum when the detected temperature by the sensor reaches a prescribed level, wherein the drum is periodically rotated at each of the two different rotational speeds and periodically stopped for a predetermined period of time, to evenly distribute the laundry from a start point of the drying cycle and continuing to an end point thereof. Appeal 2011-006889 Application 10/923,784 3 The Examiner rejects all appealed claims under 35 U.S.C. § 112, 1st paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The Examiner considers the written description requirement to be violated by the independent claim limitation "the drum is periodically rotated at each of the two different rotational speeds and periodically stopped for a predetermined period of time" (Ans. 4, 7-9). We cannot agree. "[T]he test for [written description] sufficiency is whether the disclosure of the application relied upon reasonably conveys to those skilled in the art that the inventor had possession of the claimed subject matter as of the filing date." Ariad Pharm., Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Co., 598 F.3d 1336, 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2010) quoting Ralston Purina Co. v. Far-Mar-Co. Inc., 772 F.2d 1570, 1575 (Fed. Cir. 1985). We agree with Appellants that their Specification would reasonably convey to an artisan that they had possession on the application filing date of the independent claim subject matter including the limitation under review (App. Br. 10- 11; Reply Br. 5-6). As Appellants correctly explain, the independent claims are directed to their Figure 4 second embodiment which includes rest steps equivalent to those of the Figure 3 first embodiment (Spec. paras. [0060], [0062]), and in this Figure 3 embodiment the first and second rotational speeds are periodically applied and stopped during the drying cycle (id. at paras. [0041]-[0043]). These disclosures would convey Appeal 2011-006889 Application 10/923,784 4 to an artisan that Appellants had possession on the filing date of practicing the Figure 4 embodiment by periodically rotating and periodically stopping the drum as required by the independent claims. In addition, the Examiner rejects claims 6, 7, 11, 12, 16-18, and 24 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as anticipated by Tanigawa and rejects remaining claims 19-23 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Tanigawa in view of Lantz. Each of these prior art rejections depends upon the Examiner's finding that Tanigawa teaches the independent claim limitation "wherein the drum is periodically rotated at each of the two rotational speeds and periodically stopped for a predetermined period of time, to evenly distribute the laundry from a starting point of the drying cycle and continuing to an endpoint thereof." According to the Examiner, this claim limitation is taught by Tanigawa in lines 17-23 of column 4 and in Figure 4 (Ans. para. bridging 10-11, 11 first full para.). Appellants argue that Tanigawa is silent regarding this limitation of the independent claims (App. Br. para. bridging 12-13 last sentence). Appellant's argument is well taken. In the Tanigawa disclosures identified by the Examiner, the drum rotation is stopped only once between an initial high-speed rotation and a subsequent low-speed rotation (see, e.g., Fig. 4 left side). In contrast, the independent claims require that the drum rotation is "periodically stopped for a predetermined period of time . . . from a start Appeal 2011-006889 Application 10/923,784 5 point of the drying cycle and continuing to an endpoint thereof." This claim language requires a plurality of rotation stops and therefore is not satisfied by Tanigawa's single rotation stop. It follows that we cannot sustain the Examiner's prior art rejections of the appealed claims. The decision of the Examiner is reversed. REVERSED tc Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation