Appeal No. 96-4197 Application No. 08/425,261 suggestions. In re Sernaker, 702 F.2d 989, 995, 217 USPQ 1, 6 (Fed. Cir. 1983). "Additionally, when determining obviousness, the claimed invention should be considered as a whole; there is no legally recognizable 'heart' of the invention." Para-Ordnance Mfg. v. SGS Importers Int’l, Inc., 73 F.3d 1085, 1087, 37 USPQ2d 1237, 1239 (Fed. Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 117 S.Ct. 80 (1996) citing W. L. Gore & Assocs., Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1548, 220 USPQ 303, 309 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851 (1984). Appellant argues on pages 10 through 17 of the brief that Kamrat and Welker, together or individually, fail to teach or suggest applying a force lateral to the end of the insertion rod which precludes extending beyond the insertion rod as recited in claims 19 through 21 or a pair of parallel hydraulic cylinders, each hydraulic cylinder extending toward the pipe adjacent to and aligned at the side of the stuffing assembly and blocking valve as recited in claims 22 through 29. The Examiner argues on page 4 of the answer that it would have been obvious to those skilled in the art to replace the Kamrat threaded bars with two of the hydraulic cylinders of 6Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007