Appeal No. 2005-0567
Application 10/280,391
obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into
the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly
suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of
the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art.”); see also In re
O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894, 903-04, 7 USPQ2d 1673, 1680-81 (Fed. Cir. 1988) (“Obviousness does
not require absolute predictability of success. . . . There is always at least a possibility of
unexpected results, that would then provide an objective basis for showing that the invention,
although apparently obvious, was in law nonobvious. [Citations omitted.] For obviousness under
§ 103, all that is required is a reasonable expectation of success. [Citations omitted.]”).
The method of claim 11 specifies that any piece of metal can be welded by any process to
a cast article of the composition of claim 6. The examiner finds that, prima facie, the combined
teachings of Sekino and Fried would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in this art that a cast
alloy article of the heat resistant alloys of Sekino can be welded to another alloy as shown by
Fried in the reasonable expectation of obtaining an alloy welded to a cast alloy (answer, page 7).
We find that, prima facie, the combined teachings of Sekino and Fried provide substantial
evidence in support of the examiner’s position. Indeed, Fried would have disclosed to one of
ordinary skill in this art a rotating thermal machine blading assembly comprising shroud plate 5
“made from a nickel-based superalloy (it being fundamentally possible to use a forged or cast
non-dispersion-hardened alloy)” (col. 3, ll. 53-56; see also col. 11, ll. 26-30), as illustrated in
Fried Example 1 wherein “[a] shroud plate 5 was cast from a non-dispersion-hardened nickel
based cast superalloy” (col. 6, ll. 21-37). Fried further discloses that smooth, straight wire 10
prepared from a heat-resisting forged non-hardening nickel-based superalloy, inserted into
groove 8 to lock shroud plate 5 to tip 2 of the airfoil, and illustrates such a composition in Fried
Example 1 (e.g., col. 2, ll. 7-12 and 42-59, col. 4, ll. 9-23 and 33-42, col. 6, l. 53, to col. 7, l. 12,
and col. 11, ll. 14-20). Fried teaches that wire 10 can be secured to shroud plate 5 by, among
others, welding (col. 11, ll. 23-26).
While the illustrative nickel based cast superalloy composition for shroud plate 5 in Fried
Example 1 does differ from the heat resistant alloy compositions of the nickel-based, castable
compositions of Sekino in the absence of several elements, we are of the opinion that this person
would have used heat resistant alloys disclosed by Sekino for casting shroud plate 5 in the
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