Appeal No. 1997-3785
Application No. 08/527,591
the case in the appellants’ invention. The remaining two
applied references do not alter the principles of operation of
the Cmejrek system.
It therefore is clear to us that one of ordinary skill in
the art would not have been taught by Cmejrek to insure that
the temperature of the gases exhausting from a boiler or the
like was adequate to accomplish the desired level of purging
by “raising the temperature” of the gases at all, much less
doing so to a “part” of the gases “prior to entry” of the
gases into the component that is to be purged, as is required
by claim 1.
The mere fact that the prior art could be modified does
not make such a modification obvious absent suggestion of the
desirability of doing so. See, for example, In re Gordon, 733
F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984). In the
present case, we fail to perceive any teaching, suggestion or
incentive in the applied references which would have led one
of ordinary skill in the art to modify the Greco system in the
manner proposed by the examiner. It appears to us that the
only suggestion for doing so is found in the hindsight
accorded one who first viewed the appellants’ disclosure.
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