Appeal No. 2002-0573
Application 09/150,422
appeal, or a weld connecting the top surface of the reducing
coupling to the bottom surface of the drop nipple to form an
integral drop nipple-reducing coupling assembly with a smooth,
uniform outer surface, as required in the claims on appeal.
As correctly pointed out by appellant (brief, pages 13-14
and 18), MacDonald discloses a connection between a flexible
conduit (18) made of stainless steel braid and a fitting or
reducing coupling (14) wherein a section (118) of the outer
surface (106) at the conduit end of the fitting (e.g., Fig. 5) is
adapted to receive one end of the flexible conduit, with that end
of the conduit being bonded to the fitting by any permanent
method, for example, by welding (col. 5, lines 31-36). Thus, in
MacDonald the flexible conduit (18) is apparently slid over the
outer surface of the fitting (14) and then welded to the outer
surface of the fitting by a circumferential weld, thereby forming
an overlapping connection between the conduit and the fitting.
Accordingly, even if one of ordinary skill in the art were led to
modify Ballard in view of the teachings of MacDonald, the
resulting structure of a flexible drop pipe and fitting in
Ballard (connected as in MacDonald) would be entirely different
than that claimed by appellant.
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