Appeal No. 98-0028
Application No. 08/455,912
elements and the lack of waste or residue from the drilling
operation. Note that the configuration of the bushing in
Hoogenboom is like that disclosed and claimed by the
appellant.
The claim goes on to require that the bore define “an
inner surface with an axial length substantially greater than
the thickness of the wall” so that it can receive a
substantial portion of the fluid coupling wherein this
substantial portion directly contacts the wall with the
retaining and sealing members. With regard to the axial
length of the bore, we first point out that the appellant has
defined “substantial portion” of the fluid coupling as being
of such length that both the retaining and sealing members
engage the surface of the bore (specification, sentence
bridging pages 2 and 3). From our perspective, one of
ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that such an
arrangement must be present, or else both the retaining and
the sealing functions cannot be accomplished. This is
confirmed by Puttonen (Figure 4). The use of appropriate
retaining and sealing members would have been obvious to the
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