Appeal No. 2001-1343
Application No. 08/965,818
claims fails to account for the pressure activated valve in
Thompson’s Figure 4 embodiment.
Thus, the combined teachings of Bernard and Thompson
establish a prima facie case of obviousness with respect to
the subject matter recited in representative claim 77.
The appellant’s declaration evidence of non-obviousness
purportedly shows that the claimed invention was appreciated
by others for its inventive aspects, solved a long-felt need
in the art, and was copied by competitors (see pages 18 and 19
in the brief).
The Francis declaration pertains to an innovation award
presented to the appellant by the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at the Offshore Technology
Conference held May 3-6, 1999 in Houston, Texas. The
declaration establishes that the award was based in large part
on the benefits of the claimed torque wrench system when used
in deepwater drilling applications; however, neither
representative claim 77 nor any other appealed claim is
limited to such applications. Moreover, to the extent that
the award and the related ASME press release (copy appended to
the declaration as Exhibit A) extol the general purpose speed
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