In re Mosher

79 F.2d 911, 23 C.C.P.A. 740, 1935 CCPA LEXIS 293
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedNovember 25, 1935
DocketNo. 3544
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 79 F.2d 911 (In re Mosher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Mosher, 79 F.2d 911, 23 C.C.P.A. 740, 1935 CCPA LEXIS 293 (ccpa 1935).

Opinion

Lenroot, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This appeal brings before us for review a decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office, affirming that of the examiner, rejecting all of the claims of appellant’s application for lack of invention in view of the cited prior art. The claims here involved are Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive.

Claims 1 and 4 are illustrative and read as follows:

1. In a doughnut machine and in combination a cooking vat having a deep portion and a shallow portion, o-ne doughnut conveyor in each of said portions, turning mechanism between said conveyors, and means for actuating said turning mechanism to transfer doughnuts from said deep portion to said shallow portion and to simultaneously overturn said doughnuts.
[741]*7414. A doughnut machine comprising a cooking vat having a deep portion and a shallow portion, a submerged conveyor in said deep portion, an elevated conveyor in said shallow portion, turning mechanism between said conveyors, means for actuating said turning mechanism to transfer doughnuts from said deep portion to said shallow portion and to simultaneously reverse said doughnuts, and means for actuating said conveyors and said turning mechanism in timed relation, said means comprising a reciprocable lever and connections between said lever and said conveyors and mechanism whereby movement of said rod in one direction moves said turning mechanism and movement in the opposite direction moves said conveyors.

The nature of the claimed invention is sufficiently recited in the claims above quoted.

Appellant claims that by his structure a large saving in cooking grease is made possible compared with the grease used in machines in the prior art, and he also claims that his invention avoids rancidity of the grease used in cooking doughnuts in a doughnut machine.

The references relied upon are:

Roehl et al., 1,828,409, September 15, 1931.
Roehl, 1,834,182, December 1, 1931.

The Patent to Roehl et al., No. 1,823,409, relates to a doughnut machine. The specification and drawings disclose a tank with deep and shallow portions. In the deep portion there is shown a submerged conveyor, and in the shallow portion two conveyors, with a turn-over device between them. The patent states:

Changes in the specific form of our invention, as herein disclosed, may be made within the scope of what is olaAmeU, without departing from the spirit of our invention. (Italics ours.)

While the drawings disclose three conveyors, as aforesaid, and the specification describes them with a turn-over device between the two conveyors in the shallow portion, claims 1 and 2 of the patent read as follows:

1. A doughnut machine comprising a tank, two conveyors for moving the doughnuts along said tank, a turn-over paddle disposed between said conveyors, said paddle including a shaft and a pair of oppositely directed paddle members secured to said shaft in offset relation to one another to form rests on opposite sides of said shaft.
2. A doughnut machine comprising a tank, two conveyors for moving the doughnuts along said tank, a turn-over paddle disposed between said conveyors said paddle including a shaft, a pair of paddle members secured to said shaft on opposite sides thereof for engaging the doughnuts, said shaft forming a rest for the edge of the doughnut for supporting the same during the overturning thereof.

It will be noted that the above-quoted claims refer to only two conveyors in the tank with a turn-over device interposed between them. Claim 3 of said patent refers to a conveyor submerged in the tank and a second conveyor disposed without the tank. This [742]*742claim does not contain the element oí a turn-over device between the conveyors. Claim 4 of the patent refers to only one conveyor positioned above the tank.

The patent to Roehl, No. 1,834,182, relates to a device for turning over the doughnuts during the process of cooking in a doughnut machine.

Claims 4 and 5 of appellant’s application detail turn-over mechanism similar to that shown in said last-named patent.

In appellant’s application the dimensions of the tank and conveyors are not shown; furthermore, the references do not give the dimensions of the tanks and conveyors therein described.

During the progress of appellant’s prosecution of his application before the examiner, he filed an affidavit which, among other things, set out the dimensions of the tank of the doughnut machine marketed commercially, embodying the construction of the Roehl et al. patent, No. 1,823,409, and also set out the dimensions of the machine disclosed in his (appellant’s) application, contending that his machine was 3 feet shorter than the Roehl et al. machine, had only 75% of the grease capacity of said machine, but that his machine had the same doughnut capacity as said Roehl et al. machine. Both the examiner and the Board of Appeals declined to consider said facts contained in the affidavit as bearing upon the patentability of appellant’s claims. Upon this point the board in its decision stated:

As to this affidavit the Examiner states that the proportion or size of applicant’s device and the comparative proportions of Roehl’s product were not of record in the original specification. In the original specification it was stated in substance that the principle advantage of applicant’s arrangement lies in the fact that a large saving of cooking grease is made possible by virtue of the overhead conveyor device for substantially half the length of the doughnut machine, permitting the use of a shallower pan or vat than is required where both of the conveyors are submerged. It is further stated in the original specification that one of the conveyors formerly used at the receiving end of the machine is eliminated and only two conveyors in all are employed, one at the receiving end and the other at the delivery end.
Any disclosure of particular size and proportions other than those set out in-the original specification would constitute new matter if incorporated in the present disclosure and cannot be considered as a part thereof. * * *

We are in agreement with these views of the board, and are of the opinion that we may not consider said affidavit respecting the relative size of the tanks disclosed by appellant and by the references.

It will be observed that claim 1 of appellant’s application recites one doughnut conveyor in each of the deep and shallow portions of the tank. Most of the other claims recite “a submerged conveyor” and “an elevated conveyor.” Claim G does not recite any conveyor at all, but does recite the position of the turn-over device between the deep and shallow portions of the tank. It was the view of the [743]*743examiner that, While claim 1 limited the device claimed to one conveyor only in the deep- portion and one conveyor only in the shallow portion of the tank, the other claims were not so limited, and so included a structure having more than one conveyor in either or both of said tank portions.

As to claim 1 he held that it would not involve invention to eliminate one of the conveyors shown by Roehl et al., No.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 F.2d 911, 23 C.C.P.A. 740, 1935 CCPA LEXIS 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-mosher-ccpa-1935.