Appeal No. 95-5059
Application 08/157,872
opening in registration with a fuel access port in the vehicle,
as is added to the basic structure by claim 5.
However, such a feature was known in the prior art at the
time of the appellant’s invention, as exemplified by Jacobson
(see the fuel opening, unnumbered, in Figures 1 and 2). It would
have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify
the Daimler Benz unit by adding such an access opening in
registration with an access port on the vehicle, suggestion being
found in the self-evident advantages thereof, such as permitting
the continued use of the existing fuel port, which would have
been known to the artisan, who is presumed to possess a
reasonable level of skill rather than the lack thereof. See In
re Sovish, 769 F.2d 738, 742, 226 USPQ 771, 774 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
Claim 11 adds to claim 1 the limitation that the extension
unit be secured to the vehicle via an adhesive, and independent
claim 12 effectively adds the same limitation to the structure
also recited in claim 1. Daimler Benz discloses securing the
unit to the vehicle by means of fasteners that fit through
openings in the vehicle body. Jacobson discusses several means
for attaching panels to the outer surface of a vehicle, including
fasteners (column 1), and suggests a preference for using an
adhesive at the edges (column 2, lines 32 and 33). From our
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