Opinion ID: 294274
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Difference Between Prior Art and the Claims at Issue.

Text: 25 The Caine cup differs from the '360 invention essentially in that its stacking ring is not reverse tapered or undercut so as to give the stacking ring a Z-shaped configuration. This feature of '360 imparted additional resiliency to the cup unit as a whole which was necessary to achieve wedge-free nesting without damage from reasonably anticipated axial force such as dropping. We conclude that the structural differences between Caine and '360 are such as to lead to the Caine cup's tendency to jam together and its undisputedly short commercial life as established in the trial court, neither of which is true of the '360 cup. 26 The Miller invention also differs materially from the '360 invention. It is not a one-piece cup of thinwall plastic, but rather is a paper cup with a plastic bottom. As already noted, the structure of Miller's cup necessarily creates a reinforced band around the perimeter of the cup where the paper barrel or sidewall is adhesively connected to the plastic bottom closely adjacent to the stacking facility which is a part of the cup bottom. The stacking facility of the '360 invention is a circumferentially discontinuous, Z-shaped, integral deformation of the cup sidewall which allows the major part of the entire sidewall to distend and deform outwardly upon the application of great axial force to a stack of nested cups. Conversely, the structure of the Miller cup is such that the three-layered (paper-adhesive-plastic) circumferential juncture of the cup bottom with the separate sidewall and the five-layered seam occurring at one point of the juncture, all of which is placed immediately next to the stacking facility, cannot but impede the action of resilient deformation which all the witnesses have agreed is crucial to jam- or wedge-free nesting. Indeed, defendants' witness Davis conceded that the above described juncture did provide a reinforcing band around the upper flange of the plastic bottom. The testimony of plaintiff's Edwards was unrebutted when he said that the resiliency characteristic of the '360 cup was a function, at least in part, of the ability of the sidewall above and below the stacking facility resiliently to distort out-of-round. Even if we assume that paper cup material and thin plastic possess identical resilience in identical structures, the presence of the reinforcing band joint in close proximity to the stacking facility of Miller's cup logically compels the conclusion that a nested stack of such cups would be considerably less resilient upon the application of axial force than the '360 cup. 27 The differences between the Plaxall base and the '360 invention are obvious from our previous description of each and the observation of the district court in that regard so that further discussion here is unnecessary. 12 28