Appeal No. 1999-0674
Application No. 08/654,536
counsel that pressure of the injected foodstuff in the Rheon injector is required to form the
channel in the bread product.
For the foregoing reasons, we are satisfied that the combined teachings of the applied
prior art establish a prima facie case of obviousness with respect to appealed claims 17 and 23.
Turning now to appellant’s evidence of nonobviousness, we are mindful of the necessity
of reweighing the entire merits of the matter and hence considering all of the evidence of record
anew. In re Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1474, 223 USPQ 785, 788 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
In the present case, the only item of nonobviousness is a newspaper article entitled “A
wholly holeless bagel” published in the March 5, 1997 edition of USA Today (Paper No. 5½).
Appellant relies on this article as evidence of “a long felt problem” (main brief, page 18)
presumably solved by appellant’s invention. We disagree with appellant’s argument about this
article for the reasons set forth below.
At the outset, it is noted that the newspaper article mentioned above does not mention
appellant, let alone crediting appellant with a solution to the foodstuff spillage problem. Instead,
a third party, Larry Bares, is credited with that solution.
Furthermore, to establish a long felt need, appellant must demonstrate the existence of a
problem which has been recognized in the art and remained unsolved over a long period of time
despite efforts to solve the problem until appellant’s invention. Vandenberg v. Dairy Equipment
Co., 740 F. 2d 1560, 1567, 224 USPQ 195, 199 (Fed. Cir. 1984). The newspaper article
does not provide such evidence. More importantly, the prior art in the record before us
conclusively establishes that the problem of spillage of cream cheese or other foodstuff from a
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