Appeal No. 1998-0538 Application 08/424,634 purposes anyway. Finally, the examiner is incorrect in asserting on pages 4 and 5 of the answer that "[i]t is assumed to be inherent to Nagase '816's disclosure" that certain features are present. "To establish inherency, the extrinsic evidence, must make clear that the missing descriptive matter is necessarily present in the thing described in the reference, and that it would be so recognized by person of ordinary skill." Continental Can Co. v. Monsanto Co., 948 F.2d 1264, 1268, 20 USPQ2d 1746, 1749 (Fed. Cir. 1991). "Inherency, however, may not be established by probabilities or possibilities. The mere fact that a certain thing may result from a given set of circumstances is not sufficient." Id. at 1269, 20 USPQ2d at 1749 (quoting In re Oelrich, 666 F.2d 578, 581, 212 USPQ 323, 326 (CCPA 1981)). In view of the foregoing, we have reversed the examiner's rejection of independent claims 1 and 4. As such, we also 7Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007