Application of Osweiler
| Decision Date | 17 June 1965 |
| Docket Number | Patent Appeal No. 7225. |
| Citation | 346 F.2d 617,52 CCPA 1427 |
| Parties | Application of Paul L. OSWEILER. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) |
Robert L. Kahn, Chicago, Ill. (Samuel Lebowitz, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for appellant.
Clarence W. Moore, Washington, D. C. (S. Wm. Cochran, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for Commissioner of Patents.
Before WORLEY, Chief Judge, and RICH, MARTIN, SMITH, and ALMOND, Judges.
This is an appeal from a decision of the Board of Appeals affirming the rejection of claim 7 of appellant's application for patent for an improvement in a concrete pipe joint, serial No. 613,480, filed October 2, 1956.
As pointed out in the specification, the pipe joint to which the present invention relates is a metal joint designed for joining the ends of abutting sections of concrete pipe. Its purpose is to impart mechanical stability to the joined pipe ends while providing a liquid-tight sealed joint which eliminates leakage from the interior of the joint or seepage from the exterior into the pipe. As the specification points out:
* * * It is well known that concrete pipe is subject to stresses and strains during and after installation. Improper bedding of the pipe or joint will result in severe strains upon the pipe and joint. In addition to the above, expansion and contraction, traffic load upon the ground over the pipe are all factors which tend to impose stresses upon pipe joints. * * *
A conventional use of concrete pipes is as underground sewer and water supply systems. Due to the weight and bulk of such pipes, they are installed in sections and the problem with which the present invention is concerned is how to join such sections in a connection which is strong enough to maintain a liquid-tight seal and yet which will accommodate some non-linearity in adjacent pipe lengths.
The specific joint for which appellant seeks a patent is fully set forth in the single claim on appeal, which can be most readily analyzed when its various elements are set forth separately as follows:
The rejection which the board sustained, and which presents the only issue before us, is that the subject matter of claim 7 would be obvious and hence unpatentable in light of these references:
Mitchell et al. 1,293,163 Feb. 4, 1919
Damsel 1,967,467 July 24, 1934
The examiner in his answer also relied upon two additional references:
Trickey 1,976,589 Oct. 9, 1934
Gurck 496,141 Sept. 15, 1953
(Canadian)
In disposing of the additional references, the board stated:
Claim 7 has also been rejected as unpatentable over either Trickey or Gurck as alternative primary references, in view of Damsel. With this rejection we do not agree. While each of Trickey and Gurck discloses pipe ends respectively of bell and spigot configuration, we note that in each of said references the bell component is covered by reinforced concrete extending outwardly therefrom. This being so, even were the split ring arrangement of Damsel to be regarded as applicable to the device of Trickey or Gurck, we do not think that it would be obvious to apply the clamping ring in the structural manner required by the claim. The latter recites the clamping ring as cooperating with flanges attached respectively to the bell and spigot components. The prior art before us does not teach the use of concrete flanges for clamping purposes, but teaches only the provision of metal flanges for this purpose, and in the light of the aforementioned reinforced concrete covering for the bell components in Trickey and Gurck we doubt that the use of a metal flange, attached to the bell component as required by the claim on appeal, would be obvious to one skilled in the art. We will not sustain the rejection of claim 7 based on Trickey or Gurck in primary reference aspect.
Thus, in the context of the rejection before us, we are required to determine the issue of patentability according to the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 103, i. e., would the joint as claimed in appealed claim 7 have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the Mitchell et al. and Damsel references?
Both Mitchell et al. and Damsel disclose joints for concrete pipes. Mitchell et al. shows a concrete pipe joint in which a metal bell on one pipe end is adapted to receive a metal spigot on the end of a pipe to be joined thereto. The surfaces of the bell and the spigot are, the patent states, "rounded to conform to arcs of circles of relatively large diameter, so that when two section...
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