Appeal No. 96-0555
Application No. 08/156,741
surface 36 having a socket 9. The patent teaches that
"provided the convex surface 35 has sufficient resiliency, the
plane surface 36 need not be of resilient material" (page 2,
column 1, lines 34-36). The purpose of the elastomer material
is to insure that air, which is considered detrimental to the
connection, is not present (page 2, column 1, line 15 et
seq.).
From our perspective, it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art, in view of Webber, to modify the
Powell connector by placing a layer of elastomeric material
over the face through which the pins protrude and, to the
extent that it might not be implicit in Powell that the face
in which the sockets are installed is rigid, to so construct
it. Motivation for doing so is found in the explicit
teachings of Webber that such improves the soundness of the
connection, considered with the explicit requirement of Powell
that the connector be useable in a hostile environment. The
requirement in dependent claim 9 that the elastomeric face be
convex is taught by Webber.
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007