Appeal No. 97-2999 Page 10
Application No. 08/338,714
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art at the time the invention was made to modify the
link assembly of Kujawski by substituting the mating
thread locking arrangement with the deformed bead and
corresponding groove locking arrangement to benefit from
having the locking arrangement which is much more simple
and cost effective to make.
We agree.
We do not agree with the appellant's argument (brief, pp.
9-10) that there is no suggestion in Haver that would have led
one to modify Kujawski. When it is necessary to select
elements of various teachings in order to form the claimed
invention, we ascertain whether there is any suggestion or
motivation in the prior art to make the selection made by the
appellant. Obviousness cannot be established by combining the
teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention,
absent some teaching, suggestion or incentive supporting the
combination. The extent to which such suggestion must be
explicit in, or may be fairly inferred from, the references,
is decided on the facts of each case, in light of the prior
art and its relationship to the appellant's invention. Thus,
the references themselves must provide some teaching whereby
the appellant's combination would have been obvious. In re
Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007