Appeal No. 1998-1289
Application 07/906,492
Nelson discloses a rim making process comprising the
steps of
providing a strip of metal, which may be rolled,
at the rolling mill, to a form having the cross
section which is to be given to the finished
rims, . . . bending a strip of metal of this
cross section, and of suitable length, to form
an annulus, the adjacent ends of said strip
being welded together so that a complete ring is
formed, and, then, severing this annulus along
the central, longitudinal plane to form two
complete rims [page 1, lines 46 through 56].
According to Nelson, this process provides the
benefits of “rims [that] can be manufactured more
efficiently and at lower cost” (page 1, lines 8 through
10), “economies of construction” (page 1, line 26) and “a
more convenient and economical production of these rims”
(page 1, lines 94 and 95).
The test for obviousness is not whether the features
of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into
the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that
the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any
one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what
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