Appeal No. 1998-0187
Application No. 08/247,518
cost saving benefits could be derived by reducing the amount
of skilled labor required in the subsequent stages of cup
production, namely, in attaching the handle, removing
imperfections and decorating the fired product. See ¶¶ 9 and
19.
The appellant argues that the Uram and Johnson
declarations establish the financial or commercial success of
the claimed invention. However, our review of the
declarations reveals that none of the declarations attest to
any commercial sales of cups made by the method of claim 8.
Rather, the appellant’s financial success argument seems to be
based on the license agreement between Wedgwood and Certech.
See Main Brief, pp. 9, 10 and 12. We do not believe that
evidence of a single license agreement establishes commercial
success, particularly where no evidence of any commercial
sales of the product made by the process defined in claim 8
has been presented and the licensee is obligated to pay only a
minimum royalty. See the Uram declaration, at ¶ 11.
The appellant also argues that at the time of the
appellant’s invention the industry did not believe cups with
handles could be economically manufactured by injection
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