Appeal No. 2000-2039
Application 09/176,608
settled that the discovery of an optimum value of a variable in a
known process is normally obvious, there being exceptions where
the parameter optimized was not recognized as being a result-
effective variable or where the results of optimizing the
variable are unexpectedly good. In re Antonie, 559 F.2d 618,
620, 195 USPQ 6, 8-9 (CCPA 1977). In the instant case, one of
ordinary skill in the art certainly would have appreciated, as a
simple matter of common sense, that the number of uncut portions
in a diagonal cut line of the sort disclosed by Gorton is a
result-effective variable affecting the strength of the breakable
connection between the main and reclosable top portions of the
box, and that a lone uncut portion located about midway along the
length of the diagonal cut line would reduce the effort and time
required to initially open the box as compared with a plurality
of uncut portions. The appellants have not advanced any evidence
to the contrary. Hence, here again, Gorton, taken alone or in
combination with the admitted prior art, would have suggested a
box blank meeting the claim limitation at issue, even under the
more restrictive interpretation urged by the appellants.2
2 We note with interest the presence in the record of U.S.
Patent No. 5,575,386 to Focke et al. which discloses a cigarette
box and blank having diagonal cut lines wherein each cut line has
but two uncut portions, one (39) midway along the length of the
cut line and the other (38) at the front end of the cut line.
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