Appeal No. 98-2031
Application 08/794,154
vibration control, and articles useful in high vacuum sealing (col. 2, lines 7-9). The examiner concludes
from an evaluation of the references that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to
construct the goggles of Runckel with the conformable sealing pad (42) therein being formed from a
gelatinous elastomer composition of the type suggested by Chen.
After reviewing the collective teachings of Runckel and Chen, we must agree with the examiner
that the goggles as set forth in appellants’ independent claim 1 on appeal would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellants’ invention. The principal arguments with regard
to the examiner's position made by appellants are that a) Chen nowhere suggests that his material can
be used as a “sealing pad” (brief, page 9), b) while Chen lists a wide variety of uses of his compliant
gelatinous material with the human body, none of those uses even vaguely hints at the use as a sealing
pad, and more specifically, c) that Chen does not teach or suggest the use of his elastomers in any eye-
related application or as a sealing pad with human skin (brief, page 11).
While we recognize that Chen does not expressly teach the use of his compliant and resiliently
deformable gelatinous elastomer as a sealing pad in the environment of an eye-related application like
swimming goggles, we nonetheless are of the view that one of ordinary skill in the art familiar with the
collective teachings of Runckel and Chen would have found it obvious at the time of appellants’
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007