Appeal No. 96-0681
Application 08/041,715
terminate at the inner surface of the cap, as exemplified by
holes 26 of Russell.
However, the fact that apertures 22 of Kleinhans are
presumably punched also accounts for the fact that their diameters
diverge outwardly. Contrary to the examiner’s statement on page 7
of the answer, divergence of the diameters of the apertures is not
“taught” by Kleinhans; the most that can be said is that it is
shown in the drawing. If the Kleinhans cap were made out of
plastic instead of metal, we do not consider that one of ordinary
skill would find it obvious to mold the apertures in the cap with
an outwardly diverging diameter, any more than they would
reproduce in plastic the protruding inner ends of the Kleinhans
apertures. Rather, one of ordinary skill would recognize that
Kleinhans’ apertures 22 have an outwardly diverging diameter and
extend beyond the inner surface of the cap as a result of the
method by which they were made (punching). Since Kleinhans
attributes no advantage to (in fact, does not even mention) the
outwardly diverging diameter of the apertures 22, one of ordinary
skill making the cap out of molded plastic would not be motivated
to try to replicate the shape of the punched apertures by using
apertures of outwardly diverging diameter, but in all likelihood
would simply use constant diameter apertures (as shown, for
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Last modified: November 3, 2007