The patent application shows the water flowing around a cell inside a pipe. Rossi claims this is the present configuration. Storms and others suspect the water flows through the middle of a torus-shaped cell.
There are three possibilities here: this configuration may be immaterial, or important, or sub-optimal. Suppose the configuration makes no difference to performance, and Rossi settled on this configuration at the time of the patent for no particular reason. In that case, this detail of the patent is immaterial and it will have no effect on the validity of the patent. It will be like forward-canard elevator configuration shown in the Wright brother's patent. Their patent was still valid when airplanes all had the elevators moved to the rear. That patent also shows no motors or propellers on the machine, because the Wrights were only patenting the control system, not those other systems. This configuration may have some material advantage. I cannot judge what that might be, but from his comments I have the impression that Rossi thinks this is important. It could be that this configuration makes the cells work less well than a torus design. If it is later shown that when Rossi submitted the patent, he knew this was a sub-optimal configuration, the patent might be judged invalid. I am sure his patent lawyer told him that. I do not think he would run that risk. Assuming the patent is similar to the application, it seems to cover only the machine, not the nickel powder. I assume he has another patent application for the powder. This is somewhat analogous to the fact that Edison patented the light bulb first, and later a host of peripheral inventions such as the improved generators and so on. Except that in this case, it seems to me Rossi has patented the peripheral first, rather than the central discovery. He can do that if he wants. Perhaps the final patent covers a broader range than the application. Perhaps it even shows a configuration other than the flow-around one. I do not know enough about patents to judge, but I suppose it is similar to the application, or they would have changed the application text. - Jed
