Ex parte BUETTIKER - Page 6




            Appeal No. 1998-0484                                                          Page 6              
            Application No. 08/675465                                                                         


            This is coupled with a downwardly diminishing cross-sectional area from the circular inlet        
            opening to the oblong outlet opening (column 5).   Barker discloses a glass feeder                
            apparatus with a single discharge opening rather than the multiple openings found in              
            Kirkman.   Barker’s spout bowl has a circular inlet opening and an oblong outlet opening,         
            with the outlet opening being “within” the inlet opening, in the manner required by the           
            appellant’s claim 1.  However, the mere fact that the Kirkman structure could be modified         
            does not make such a modification obvious unless the prior art suggests the desirability of       
            doing so.  See In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 221 USPQ 1125 (Fed. Cir. 1984).  Quite                 
            frankly, we are unable to appreciate the relevance of the examiner’s statement, apparently        
            made to justify the proposed combination of references, that one of ordinary skill in the art     
            would do so because of “the reasonable expectation of providing for the discharge of              
            molten glass from the spout bowl and to control the flow of glass and to deliver a uniform        
            glass gob from the feeder” (final rejection, Paper No. 15, page 5).   In any event, it is our     
            view that the artisan would not have been motivated to substitute the Barker arrangement          
            for that disclosed by Kirkman because it would result in a wholesale makeover of the glass        
            discharge spout of Kirkman, and that would appear, in the absence of evidence to the              
            contrary, to destroy the Kirkman invention.                                                       













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