Appeal No. 2004-1264
Application 09/909,168
however, the examiner goes on to urge that inasmuch as the posts
(tongues) of Ferreira will resiliently deflect in the vertical
and axial direction “then they are inherently capable of
deflecting in a generally radially outward direction in response
to an outwardly directed force.”
It is well settled that inherency may not be established by
probabilities or possibilities, but must instead be "the natural
result flowing from the operation as taught." See In re Oelrich,
666 F.2d 578, 581, 212 USPQ 323, 326 (CCPA 1981). In the present
case, the disclosure of Ferreira does not provide an adequate
factual basis to establish that the natural result flowing from
following the teachings of that reference would be a post or
locking member which is deflectable in a generally radially
outward direction in response to outwardly applied forces applied
to the posts/locking members during rotary insertion thereof into
a socket, as required in appellant’s claims on appeal. This is
especially true in Ferreira since we have no idea as to the exact
structure of the lock tongues (33) in the radial direction, even
in the embodiment described in column 2, lines 42-46, of that
patent. Moreover, we also note our agreement with appellant’s
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