Appeal No. 1997-0074
Application No. 08/123,092
face and the insert in a single cover forming operation so
that . . . [both] will be covered by the same material"
(Answer, page 5), after which he concludes that "it therefore
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to
use the vacuum cover application technique of Mills to apply
the covering to the handle and panel face in the processes of
Ashtiani-Zarandi and Wilfert" (Answer, page 6). Finally, the
examiner applies Michel, which is directed to a method of
forming articles such as pallets, opining that it would have
been obvious, in view of Michel, to draw and secure the
vacuum-formed cover of a handle around the handle “because
Mills shows this to be possible and Michel teaches the use of
vacuum for drawing a covering around a substrate” (Answer,
pages 6-7).
The first step in the method recited in claim 1 is
providing a structural substrate that has a handle hole, and
the second is to attach a handle frame to the substrate so
that it spans the hole. These two steps clearly are not
explicitly disclosed or taught by either Ashtiani-Zarandi or
Wilfert, which are the only two references that even disclose
a handle, nor is there reason to believe that such inherently
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