Ex parte CASTEEL et al. - Page 6




          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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