Appeal No. 99-0612 Page 6
Application No. 08/772,958
spaced edges of the segments of the lip portions. Moreover,
we find the examiner's conclusion that the provision of spaces
or cut-outs in the lip portions would make the device cheaper
or easier to clean to be speculative. In fact, a hose guide
having cut-outs would be a more complicated device than that
disclosed by Pauli and, consequently, would likely be more
expensive, not cheaper, to manufacture and more difficult, not
easier, to clean. While a hose guide having spaces or cut-
outs in the lip portions would be lighter than the hose guide
of Pauli having continuous lip portions, we can find no
teaching or suggestion as to why one of ordinary skill in the
art would have been motivated to reduce the weight of the hose
guide of Pauli, especially in view of the other consequences
noted above. The mere fact that Pauli could be modified to
make the tangs spaced apart would not have made the
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). Accordingly,
it is our opinion that the examiner has not established a
prima facie case of obviousness.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007