In re Sponnoble

While I agree with the statement of the majority that “patentable invention may lie in the discovery of the source of a problem even though the remedy may be obvious once the source of the problem is identified,” I do not believe that the facts of this case warrant the conclusion that appellant was the first to discover that passage through the center plug was a major cause of moisture transmission.

I feel that the question of “whether the prior art recognized the cause of the problem” must of necessity be answered in the affirmative. Parsons, one of the secondary references employed by the…