Appeal No. 2006-1279
Application No. 10/249,005
matter in the patent application, including the embodiments,
function and structure of the claimed invention." Bigio, 381
F.3d at 1325, 72 USPQ2d at 1212. Furthermore, we must assess the
level of ordinary skill in the art and consider "the reality of
the circumstances−in other words, common sense−in deciding in
which fields a person of ordinary skill would reasonably be
expected to look for a solution to the problem facing the
inventor." Id. at 1326, 72 USPQ2d at 1212 (quoting In re
Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1447, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1446 (Fed. Cir.
1992) (emphasis in original)). Ultimately, we "must consider the
'circumstances' of the application−the full disclosure−and weigh
those circumstances from the vantage point of the common sense
likely to be exerted by one of ordinary skill in the art in
assessing the scope of the endeavor." Id. at 1326, 72 USPQ2d
at 1212-13.
The disclosed invention includes an x-ray illuminating
source 42 and an x-ray detector 44 that uses x-ray properties
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