Ex Parte Murdock et al - Page 10




          Appeal No. 2002-2074                                                        
          Application No. 09/494,965                                                  

               The mere existence of functional and mechanical equivalence,           
          however, does not establish obviousness.  Expedients which are              
          functionally equivalent to each other are not necessarily obvious           
          in view of one another.  In re Scott, 323 F.2d 1016, 1019, 139              
          USPQ 297, 299 (CCPA 1963).  Although the devices disclosed by               
          Garrett and Wood are both projectile launchers in a general                 
          sense, in reality they constitute distinctly different                      
          apparatuses serving distinctly different purposes.  As pointed              
          out by the appellants (see pages 3 and 4 in the reply brief), the           
          pneumatic propulsion system disclosed by Wood is relatively                 
          complex and bulky as compared to the cartridge propulsion system            
          disclosed by Garrett, and seemingly would be ill suited for the             
          battlefield environment in which the Garrett grenade launcher is            
          intended to be used.  Considered in this light, the two systems             
          would not appear to be functional or mechanical equivalents; but            
          even if they were, the ostensible unsuitability of a pneumatic              
          system as disclosed by Wood for use in a grenade launcher as                
          disclosed by Garrett would have discouraged the substitution                
          proposed by the examiner.  It follows that the only suggestion              
          for combining the two references so as to arrive at the subject             
          matter recited in claims 1, 54, 62 and 63 stems from hindsight              
          knowledge impermissibly derived from the appellants’ disclosure.            


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