Appeal No. 2006-1255
Application No. 10/655,076
been obvious to connect the lower edge of the interior
walls with the floor and each end of the interior walls
with a respective one of a pair of opposed walls to
provide a water tight connection prohibiting mixing
from one compartment to an adjacent compartment.
The examiner has not established that Kellogg’s disclosure
of nylon mesh divider panels that are in a container for storing
and transporting objects such as garments and toys and are
stitched to the container’s side panels would have fairly
suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the art, contaminated
fluid-impervious divider panels that are attached to the
container’s side panels and floor in a way that enables
compartments formed by the divider panels to contain contaminated
fluid. Thus, the record indicates that the examiner arrived at
the claimed invention by impermissible hindsight in view of the
appellant’s disclosure. See W.L. Gore & Associates v. Garlock,
Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1553, 220 USPQ 303, 312-13 (Fed. Cir. 1983),
cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851 (1984); In re Rothermel, 276 F.2d 393,
396, 125 USPQ 328, 331 (CCPA 1960). Consequently, we reverse the
rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Van Romer ‘233 in view of
Kellogg ‘188 and Kellogg ‘924.
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