Appeal No. 2000-2097 Page 5
Application No. 08/852,681
teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention,
absent some teaching or suggestion supporting the
combination." ACS Hosp. Sys., Inc. v. Montefiore Hosp., 732
F.2d 1572, 1577, 221 USPQ 929, 933 (Fed. Cir. 1984). And
"teachings of references can be combined only if there is some
suggestion or incentive to do so." Id.
Claim 1, the sole independent claim on appeal, reads as
follows:
A wrench comprising:
a handle formed entirely of non-metallic material; and
a head at an end of the handle, said head including a
non-metallic body, a metal workpiece-engaging member
encompassed by said body so as to secure said member to
said body, and a reinforcing structure embedded in said
body and encompassing said workpiece-engaging member.
In this case, after reviewing the teachings of the
applied prior art, we find ourselves in agreement with the
appellants' position (brief, pp. 5-8) that there is nothing in
either Zurbuchen '300 or Cooper which would have suggested
either
(1) making the workpiece-engaging member of Zurbuchen '300 of
metal, or (2) providing Zurbuchen '300 with a
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