Appeal No. 1997-4111 Page 17
Application No. 08/540,947
The obviousness rejection of claim 12
We sustain the rejection of claim 12 under 35 U.S.C. §
103.
A case of obviousness is established by presenting
evidence that would have led one of ordinary skill in the art
to combine the relevant teachings of the references to arrive
at the claimed invention. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071,
1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988) and In re Lintner,
458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972).
Claim 12 adds to parent claim 7 the further limitation
that the plug is made of plastic material.
The examiner ascertained (answer, p. 5) that the only
difference was the limitation that the plug is made of plastic
material. Then, with regard to this difference, the examiner
determined that (1) plastic material is a notoriously well
known material of construction, and (2) it would have been
obvious to a skilled artisan to have utilized plastic material
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