Appeal No. 2001-0685 Page 6
Application No. 09/171,613
continuously tapered radius of curvature as set forth in claim
1 on appeal. In that regard, it is well-settled that under
principles of inherency, when a reference is silent about an
asserted inherent characteristic, it must be clear that the
missing descriptive matter is necessarily present in the thing
described in the reference, and that it would be so recognized
by persons of ordinary skill. Continental Can Co. v. Monsanto
Co., 948 F.2d 1264, 1268, 20 USPQ2d 1746, 1749 (Fed. Cir.
1991).
Since all the limitations of claim 1 are not found in
Bartlett for the reasons set forth above, the decision of the
examiner to reject claim 1, and claims 5, 6 and 8 to 10
dependent thereon, under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) is reversed.
The obviousness rejections
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