Appeal No. 98-0806
Application No. 08/693,588
matter, unique only to pipes having fluid flowing therethrough
as the appellant would apparently have us believe. Instead, a
problem encountered by the appellant more broadly includes the
attaching or supporting of a cylindrical core within the
interior of a tubular member, i.e., a pipe, (see, e.g.,
specification, page 3, lines 16-27). Bellows, albeit in the
environment of solar collecting apparatus, clearly teaches the
attaching or supporting of a cylindrical member or core 16
within the interior of a tubular member 10 by means of a clip
37 having free ends 46 and 47 which firmly grip the tubular
member's inner wall (see column 3, lines 45 and 46) and a coil
or loop 41 which grips the core firmly (see column 3, line
21). Given the nature of the appellant's problem of attaching
or supporting a cylindrical core within the interior of a
tubular member, one of ordinary skill in the art would have
consulted other areas where cylindrical members are supported
or attached within the interior of a pipe or tubular member
(such as the solar collector art) for this relatively simple
mechanical concept. See, e.g., In re Heldt, 433 F.2d 808,
812, 167 USPQ 676, 679 (CCPA 1970), In re Ellis, 476 F.2d
7
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