Appeal No. 1997-4118
Application No. 08/381,814
gasoline-methanol formulation transported by the hose, a
situation which Nawrot clearly and unambiguously teaches is
undesirable.
While in retrospect, it may appear that one skilled in
the art could have used a layer of polyvinylidene fluoride and
bonding layers in the hose of Brunnhofer as urged by the
examiner to increase the hose’s resistance to permeability
(answer, page
7), we observe that, like appellants, we find no fair teaching
or suggestion in the references applied by the examiner for
such a combination. In this regard, like appellants, we note
that the mere fact that the prior art could be modified in the
manner urged by the examiner would not have made such
modification obvious unless the prior art suggested the
desirability of the modification. See In re Gordon, 733 F.2d
900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984) and In re
Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1783 (Fed. Cir.
1992). As we noted above, in our opinion the patents to
Brunnhofer and Nawrot not only fail to suggest any motivation
for, or the desirability of, the particular modifications
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