Appeal No. 98-1026
Application 08/423,067
assembly comprising a container portion and a collar portion
that are separately molded and then bonded together by an
adhesive, or plastic welded (specification, page 4), we do not
believe one of ordinary skill in the art would consider the
rim element 26 of Levenhagen as being "bonded" to the body of
the container. Instead, consistent with Levenhagen’s
disclosure, the artisan would consider Levenhagen’s rim
element and container body to be a one-piece, unitary,
monolithic structure that does not meet the "bonded"
limitation of the claims.
Second, even if we were to agree with the examiner that
the Bender reference constitutes analogous art and is thus a
proper reference for consideration in approaching the question
of obviousness, we do not find any teaching, suggestion, or
inference therein for making the modification to the nestable
and stackable container of Levenhagen proposed by the
examiner. Bender pertains to an inexpensive and light weight
construction for a pool table comprising two thin sheets 16,
18 of relatively flexible thermoplastic material that are
vacuum formed and then joined together to form a central
planar support surface 40 and a box-like marginal portion 132
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