Appeal No. 1998-2467 Page 11
Application No. 08/353,682
to interconnect the battery pack and the handle stub 18.
Thus, the connection between the battery pack and the handle
stub of Riley does not occur by movement only in the direction
of the axis of the handle. In addition, we find that in
Riley, the handle end which connects to the battery casing is
closed (base surface 20) and the inside of the handle is not
accessible. We agree with the examiner that it would have
been obvious to have provided the scanner handle with both a
battery as taught by Shepard, and a circuit board having
decoder electronics as taught by Eastman. In addition, we
agree with the examiner that both electrical pin and socket
connections and latching mechanisms that move only in an axial
direction are,
per se, old and well known. However, it is not enough that
individual elements of an invention are old and well known in
the art. There must be some teaching or suggestion in the
prior art that would have led an artisan to arrive at the
claimed invention. It is impermissible to simply engage in a
hindsight reconstruction of the claimed invention, using
appellants' structure as a template and selecting elements
from the prior art to fill the gaps. We find no suggestion in
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007