Appeal 2007-0694
Reexamination Control 90/006,433
Patent 5,428,933
recesses having the same dimension over the entire length of the block’s side
walls can be stacked together with the ‘969 teaching that the blocks can be
stacked without the need for mortar. Guarriello informs the person of
ordinary skill in the art that insulating blocks can be stacked in transverse
alignment (bidirectional), which allows for a greater flexibility in designing
the structure being built. Further, one skilled in the art would understand
that Guarriello’s transverse alignment requires the use of channels that can
accommodate projections that have been rotated 90o. A person of ordinary
skill in the art knows that a square projection rotated 90o will fit in a square
recess of substantially the same dimension.
A central question in analyzing obviousness is “whether the
improvement is more than the predictable use of prior art elements according
to their established functions.” KSR at 1740, 82 USPQ2d at 1396. As
evident from this record, Patentee’s building blocks represent a combination
of familiar building block elements, e.g., square projections and recesses and
alternating rows of projections and recesses with bi-directionality. These
known building block elements have been combined for their known
purpose to achieve a predictable result, i.e., the formation of a bi-directional
building block with square projections and recesses of substantially the same
dimension. Patentee has combined known elements in a predictable fashion
and did not produce a new or different function for the prior art elements.
Specifically, one of ordinary skill in the art desiring an insulating block that
is capable of being stacked in a bidirectional manner without the need for
mortar that is lightweight, but rigid, in structure, would have been guided to
employ Horobin’s square projections and recesses with Guarriello’s
alternating rows of projections and recesses. Accordingly, we conclude that
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