Appeal No. 98-1031
Application 08/674,667
view, however, that this modification amounts to a hindsight
reconstruction of the claimed subject matter based on
appellant’s disclosure rather than on anything fairly taught
by the references themselves.
The connection between Metallwerke’s platform 4 and
support elements 1 at circumferential rib 11 is a connection
between the platform and its tubular support elements formed
during the step of blow molding the platform. Thereafter, two
such composite members resulting from the molding operation
can be joined together (see fig. 3) to form a pallet having an
upper deck and a
lower base (translation, page 8, lines 8-17). When viewed in
this light, it seems to us that the composite members emerging
from Metallwerke’s blow mold correspond to Christie’s upper
and lower members 8a, 8b and that the molded connection at
Metallwerke’s circumferential rib 11 at best would have
suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art to form
Christie’s upper and lower sections 8a, 8b as composite
structures with the hollow members 20 and 50 joined to their
respective platforms by molded joints like those seen in
-7-
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Last modified: November 3, 2007