Appeal No. 96-1604
Application 08/272,906
the invention is patentable, resort to speculation, unfounded
assumption or hindsight reconstruction to supply deficiencies in
the factual basis. See In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017, 154
USPQ 173, 178 (CCPA 1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 1057 (1968).
Our reviewing court has repeatedly cautioned against employing
hindsight by using the applicant's disclosure as a blueprint to
reconstruct the claimed invention from the isolated teachings in
the prior art. See, e.g., Grain Processing Corp. v. American
Maize-Prods. Co., 840 F.2d 902, 907, 5 USPQ2d 1788, 1792 (Fed.
Cir. 1988).
With this as background, we turn to the patent to Sproull
applied by the examiner in the rejection of appealed claims 6
through 9 and 22. Sproull (Figures 1 and 2) discloses a fiber-
board hogshead formed by interconnecting two fiberboard semi-
cylindrical body halves 12A, 12B via a "slide fastener or zipper
means 14 (column 5, line 37-38). The hogshead may include top
and bottom members, or end closures, 16' (note Figures 8 and 9)
that include central panels 60, an upstanding vertical wall 62,
an arcuate web 64, and a downwardly extending, generally vertical
skirt portion 66. The end closures 60 are secured to the body
halves 12A, 12B by fasteners 74. Critical to the construction of
6
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