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Ex parte GOUGH et al. - Page 6
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Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences > 1998 > Ex parte GOUGH et al. - Page 6
Appeal No. 96-0251
Application 07/874,697
art, given this disclosure, would have been motivated to
shield the electrodes to the extent needed to reduce the
transfer of silver to the working electrode. Although
Lucisano states that “increasing the impedance and improving
the shielding may not alone lead to a lower rate of [silver]
deposition” (page 739, right column, lines 6-7), the
reference, when read as a whole including the teaching
discussed above, would have provided one of ordinary skill in
the art with a reasonable expectation that shielding the
electrodes would reduce the transfer of silver from the
reference electrode to the working electrode and thereby
extend the service life of the sensor. Because one of
ordinary skill in the art would have had both a motivation to
shield the electrodes and a reasonable expectation of success
in doing so, the method recited in appellants’ claim 10 would
have been prima facie obvious to such a person. See In re
Vaeck, 947 F.2d 488, 493, 20 USPQ2d 1438, 1442 (Fed. Cir.
1991); In re O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894, 902, 7 USPQ2d 1673, 1680
(Fed. Cir. 1988); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 892-93, 225 USPQ
645, 648 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
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Last modified: November 3, 2007
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