Ex parte SMITH et al. - Page 10




          Appeal No. 96-3130                                                          
          Application 08/225,653                                                      


          we must point out that “[a]s long as some motivation or                     
          suggestion to combine the references is provided by the prior art           
          taken as a whole, the law does not require that the references be           
          combined for the reasons contemplated by the inventor” (In re               
          Beattie, 974 F.2d 1309, 1312, 24 USPQ2d 1040, 1042 (Fed. Cir.               
          1992)) and all the utilities or benefits of the claimed invention           
          need not be explicitly disclosed by the prior art references to             
          render the claim unpatentable under section 103 (see In re                  
          Dillon, 919 F.2d 688, 692, 696, 16 USPQ2d 1897, 1901, 1904 (Fed.            
          Cir. 1990) (in banc), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 904 (1991)).  See              
          also In re Kemps, 97 F.3d 1427, 1429, 40 USPQ2d 1309, 1311 (Fed.            
          Cir. 1996) (“all the benefits of the claimed invention need not             
          be explicitly disclosed to render the claim unpatentable under              
          section 103").  We also observe that “[t]he fact that appellant             
          has recognized another advantage which would flow naturally from            
          following the suggestion of the prior art cannot be the basis for           
          patentability when the differences would otherwise have been                
          obvious” (Ex parte Obiaya, 227 USPQ 58, 60 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int.            
          1985), aff'd.mem., 795 F.2d 1017 (Fed. Cir. 1986)).  Similarly,             
          the mere recognition of latent properties in an otherwise obvious           
          product in the prior art does not render such a product                     


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