Appeal No. 1997-3797 Page 7
Application No. 08/121,820
or suggest automatically reading, via a bar code reader, a bar
code of a bag holding a blood product via software which
automatically confirms by the bar code
if the bag is approved for medical treatment (i.e.,
irradiation), automatically performing medical treatment
(i.e., irradiating the bag with ultraviolet radiation) if the
bag is approved but automatically terminating the process
without medical treatment (i.e., no ultraviolet radiation) if
the bag carries a bar code indicating that the bag is not
approved.
In our opinion, the only suggestion for modifying the
applied prior art in the manner proposed by the examiner to
meet the above-noted limitations stems from hindsight
knowledge derived from the appellants' own disclosure. The
use of such hindsight knowledge to support an obviousness
rejection under
35 U.S.C. § 103 is, of course, impermissible. See, for
example, W. L. Gore and Assocs., Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721
F.2d 1540, 1553, 220 USPQ 303, 312-13 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert.
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