Appeal No. 1998-0510
Application 08/742,519
transparent hose allows observation of when air and the dirty
brake fluid has been replaced by clean brake fluid. This
bleed arrangement (without a transparent hose) is shown in
figure 11.4 of Brakes. Brakes is applied only to show the
hose arrangement. Chilton's is within the scope of the prior
art because it relates to Appellants' problem of bleeding air
from a fluid system and preventing spillage while allowing
observation of the exiting fluid. See Graham v. John Deere
Co., 383 U.S. 1, 35, 148 USPQ 459, 473-74 (1966) (discussing
the plastic finger sprayer patent in Calmar, Inc. v. Cook
Chemical Co.: "The problems confronting Scoggins and the
insecticide industry were not insecticide problems; they were
mechanical closure problems.").
One of ordinary skill in the art of making cable splices
would have looked to other pertinent arts for a solution to
the problem of containing overflow of the encapsulant from the
pressure relief valves 36 during encapsulation in DeCarlo.
We also find that "a person having ordinary skill in the art
to which said subject matter pertains" under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) is a person having ordinary skill in the basic
mechanical field of the problem facing Appellants, even though
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