Appeal 2007-1399
Application 10/013,123
endeavor, or, are reasonably pertinent to addressing the same particular
problem. In re Wood, 599 F.2d 1032, 1036, 202 USPQ 171, 174 (CCPA
1979). In the present case, Jackson and Shikaya are reasonably pertinent to
the problem of joining a pleated sheet of material around an inner core, and
we agree with the Examiner that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
readily recognized the alternative methods of forming the pleated sheet in an
annular shape before positioning it around the core or wrapping the pleated
sheet around a core before bonding. We also agree with the Examiner that
Bauer '604 provides additional evidence of the obviousness of wrapping a
pleated sheet around a core before bonding, notwithstanding that the pleats
of the sheet are not along the radial axis of the core.
Appellants repeatedly state in the Principal and Reply Briefs that
claims 1, 10, 11, and 20 require wrapping a filter around a core such that its
ends are connected end-to-end (for example, see page 8 of Principal Br.,
second para.). However, neither claim 1, nor claims 10, 11, and 20, recite
that the wrapped sheet is connected end-to-end. Claim 1, for instance,
recites "joining a first fold and a second fold of the started filter sheet," with
no requirement for end-to-end connection.
Appellants also contend that "if it was so obvious to wrap a filter
having radial folds or pleats around a core and connect it end-to-end, why is
it that a single reference in the relevant field of endeavor disclosing a filter
wrapped end-to-end around a core, as required by the present claims, could
not be uncovered?" (Principal Br. 10, penultimate para.). There are any
number of reasons, of course, why the Examiner did not cite a patent with
such a teaching. However, one reason may very well be that any attempt to
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