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In re Thomason

556 F.2d 531, 194 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 79, 1977 CCPA LEXIS 146
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJune 2, 1977
DocketPatent Appeal No. 76-739
StatusPublished

This text of 556 F.2d 531 (In re Thomason) 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 Thomason, 556 F.2d 531, 194 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 79, 1977 CCPA LEXIS 146 (ccpa 1977).

Opinion

BALDWIN, Judge.

This appeal is from the decision of the Patent and Trademark Office Board of Appeals (board) affirming the examiner’s rejection of claims 8-11, 22 and 231 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious from Thomason (U.S. Patent No. 3,236,294, issued February 22, 1966), in view of Schutt (U.S. Patent No. 1,969,187, issued August 7, 1934). We affirm.

THE INVENTION

The claimed invention relates to a solar heating system for a building. Referring to Figure 1, the system operates basically as follows: water is circulated through a solar heat collector (9) and travels to a storage tank (1). The heat from the water stored [532]*532in the tank (1) transfers to stones (4) surrounding the tank (1). A pump (10) continuously transfers water from the tank (1) to the solar heat collector (9). Auxiliary heat is supplied by a domestic water heater (22) which transfers heat to finned tubing (21) in the path of flowing air.

The appealed claims are 8-11, 22 and 23. Claims 1-5 were allowed while claims 12-21 stand withdrawn and claims 6 and 7 were cancelled. Claims 11 and 22 are representative of the invention:

11. The method of heating a building and the domestic water supply comprising the steps of collecting solar-produced heat, storing said solar-produced heat to warm the building, heating the domestic water by auxiliary heat in a domestic water heater, and utilizing a portion of the heat output of the domestic water heater to assist in warming the building when solar-produced heat is not adequate to meet the heat load.
22. In heat storage and auxiliary heat apparatus the combination comprising heat storage means and means to recover heat from storage, auxiliary heating means to add auxiliary heat as needed, domestic water-heating means to heat domestic water, means to supply hot water from said water-heating means to said auxiliary heating means and also to domestic hot water facilities, and means to control flow of hot water to either, or both, as needed.

References

The patent to Thomason, appellant, discloses a solar heating system represented by Figure 2. Heat is absorbed by circulating a fluid through a solar collector (1). The fluid is stored in a tank (42) where the heat is transferred to stone-like material (59) surrounding the tank (42). The home is heated by forced air that circulates around the warmed stone-like material (59). Because solar heat is often insufficient to heat a house, an auxiliary heater (60) is available to directly heat the forced air. The solar heated fluid flows around a domestic water preheater (66).

[533]*533

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Related

Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter
35 U.S.C. § 103

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Bluebook (online)
556 F.2d 531, 194 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 79, 1977 CCPA LEXIS 146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-thomason-ccpa-1977.