Appeal No. 2006-2962
Application No. 10/252,177
This method produces a cover wherein the hard core layer and soft skin layer
are adhered or bonded together to define an integrally formed structure (see col. 2,
ll. 43-47; col. 4, ll. 63-65; col. 5, ll. 52-57; col. 6, ll. 40-41; and col. 8, ll. 33-35).
As indicated above, the Examiner is of the view that Cherry lacks response
to the limitation in claim 25 requiring that the first plastic be permitted to cool to a
temperature beneath its softening point before removal of the air bag cover body
from the first mold. Relying on Kikuchi to cure this alleged shortcoming, the
Examiner submits that it would have been obvious “to incorporate the step of
cooling [and hardening] of Kikuchi et al into the process of Cherry in order to
ensure that the body of Cherry is not damaged during the step of removing”
(Answer 4).
The test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference
may be bodily incorporated into the structure of a 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. In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413,
425, 208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
Aside from a pro forma argument that the applied combination of Cherry
and Kikuchi stems from impermissible hindsight (Br. 7-8), Appellant does not
specifically dispute the particular modification of Cherry in view of Kikuchi
advanced by the Examiner. The requisite suggestion or motivation for this
modification springs from Kikuchi’s teaching that the resin of the hard core layer
23 is “cooled and hardened” (col. 2, l. 30) before transfer from a first mold set to a
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