Appeal No. 1999-1765 Page 13
Application No. 08/839,193
appellant's disclosure as a blueprint to reconstruct the
claimed invention from the isolated teachings of the prior
art. See, e.g., Grain Processing Corp. v. American
Maize-Products Co., 840 F.2d 902, 907, 5 USPQ2d 1788, 1792
(Fed. Cir. 1988).
With this as background, we next consider the examiner’s
rejections of independent claims 1 and 12 under 35 U.S.C. §
103(a) as being unpatentable over Jabsen taken alone or in
view of Nylund, of claims 1, 10, 11 and 12 under 35 U.S.C. §
103(a) as being unpatentable over the combined teachings of
Nylund and Jabsen, and of claims 1, 10, 11 and 12 under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over the combined
teachings of Jabsen and Meier.
Initially, we observe that Jabsen discloses a fuel
assembly for a nuclear reactor including a plurality of tubes
12 extending through a pair of grid structures 13, 14 and a
releasable connection (see Figure 5) of each tube 12 to grid
13 which is effected by the use of a partially threaded sleeve
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