Appeal No. 2000-1449
Application No. 08/838,133
the locking flange on the container neck, which would have been
recognized by the ordinarily skilled artisan.
Concerning appellant’s argument (main brief, page 8) that
Arona-Delonghi “teaches away” from adaptation of any of its
features to a threaded snap-on closure, “[a] reference may be said
to teach away when a person of ordinary skill . . . would be lead
in a direction divergent from the path that was taken by
applicant.” Para-Ordnance Mfg. Inc. v. SGS Importers Int.’l Inc.,
73 F.3d 1085, 1090, 37 USPQ2d 1237, 1241 (Fed. Cir. 1995) (quoting
In re Gurley, 27 F.3d 551, 553, 31 USPQ2d 1130, 1132 (Fed. Cir.
1994)). To teach away, a reference must indicate that a certain
feature “should not” or “cannot” be used with other features. Id.
Nowhere does Arona-Delonghi state or even suggest that flexible
hook-shaped locking ribs 10 should not be used to retain a tamper-
evident band of a threaded closure to a container. In fact, Arona-
Delonghi’s disclosure at column 2, lines 51-55, and column 3, lines
45-50, of how the locking ribs 10 facilitate installation and
retention of the first closure member T on the neck of the bottle
indicates that the result sought by Arona-Delonghi’s locking ribs
and Sander’s arcuate projections 15 is the same. Thus, Arona-
Delonghi’s teaching regarding the ability of flexible locking ribs
10 to facilitate assembly and retention of a closure part on the
10
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