Appeal No. 99-1962
Application 08/671,463
the evidence relied upon by the examiner teaches, one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellants’ invention
may have considered streamlining the ribs of the fuel nozzle
guide of Butler to be of no significant benefit, or for that
matter, even detrimental to the overall performance of the
fuel nozzle guide. From our perspective, the only suggestion
for making the trailing ends of the ribs of the prior art fuel
nozzle guide arcuate comes from hindsight knowledge gleaned
from first reading appellants’ disclosure. In the present
instance, when we forget about what appellants have done and
cast ourselves back to the state of the art at the time of
Butler, we do not believe the examiner has established that it
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to
have provided any ribs that may be present on the flange of
Butler's fuel nozzle guide with trailing ends that are arcuate
in shape, as now claimed.
Since we perceive no factual basis in the reference
evidence relied upon by the examiner which supports the
proposed modification so as to result in that which is claimed
by appellants in the appealed claims, and have determined that
the examiner’s conclusion of obviousness is based on hindsight
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