Appeal No. 98-2150
Application No. 08/539,926
surface 112 and the primary sealing surface 36) to be a
"reference surface" as set forth in representative claim 1.
In view of the above, it is readily apparent that the
system utilized by Szymczak in the second operating mode is
readable on the structure recited in representative claim 1.
That is, as illustrated in Fig. 2 Szymczak's system comprises
a wellhead housing 12, a primary sealing surface 36, a 2
reference surface (that portion of the surface 38 which is not
in sealing contact with the sealing surface 112 on seal ring
86), a secondary sealing surface (that portion of the surface
38 that does not have sealing contact with the sealing surface
112 on seal ring 86), a wellhead connector (production tree
66) having a sealing surface 80, a seal ring 86, a ring seal
surface 110 for sealing contact with connector sealing surface
80, an extension 100 extending below the ring seal surface 110
and a sealing land 112 disposed on the extension for sealing
contact with the secondary sealing surface.
The appellant argues that
2Although the primary sealing surface 36 is not utilized
by Szymczak in the second operating mode, there is no
requirement in representative claim 1 that the seal ring
cooperate with the primary sealing surface.
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