Appeal No. 1998-1289
Application 07/906,492
concludes that it would have been obvious to a person
having ordinary skill in the art at the time the
invention was made (1) to utilize a fixture in the Adams
method to accurately assemble the wheel components in
view of Bache and (2) to employ a wheel disc with an
outboard tire retaining flange in the Adams method in
view of the Italian reference. This application of Bache
and the Italian reference, however, still does not
overcome the failure of Adams to meet the limitations in
claim 31 requiring the production of two separate partial
wheel rims each including an inboard tire retaining
flange and bead seat from a unitary dual rim preform.
Moreover, as argued by the appellants (see, for example,
page 14 in the main brief), the proposed combination of
Adams and the Italian reference would seem to result in a
method which produces a loose flange 68 having no
apparent use. This problematic outcome highlights the
impermissible hindsight nature of the proposed reference
combination.
Accordingly, we shall not sustain the standing
17
Page: Previous 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007