Appeal No. 96-4157
Application 08/142,772
with the connecting frame (see Figure 7).
According to the examiner, it would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was
made to "substitute the L-shaped locking bar of Bergland [sic]
for the locking bar of Brunner in the dust collector in that
mere substitution of one known alternative locking bar
arrangement for another being within the scope of one of
ordinary skill in the art" (answer, pages 5 and 6). However,
this highly selective piecing together of disparate locking
bar mechanisms finds no support in the fair teachings of
Brunner and Berglund. Indeed, the fundamental differences
between the Brunner and Berglund mechanisms clearly belie the
examiner's rationale that the proposed combination merely
involves the substitution of one known alternative locking bar
arrangement for another.
Moreover, even if Brunner and Berglund were combined in
the manner proposed, the resulting dust collector and filter
installation method still would fail to meet the limitations
in claims 4 and 18 requiring locking bars having free edges
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