Appeal No. 95-4120
Application No. 07/943,901
The examiner’s prior art rejections are based on the
contention that the adhesion levels of the adhesive coatings
on the lower and upper faces of the stickers described in
Loggins
(coatings 38 and 40 in Figures 2 and 3) must inherently fall
within the Test Method A adhesion level ranges called for by
the appealed claims because, according to the examiner, the
stickers are used in a similar fashion to that of the claimed
sheet material and, if adhesion levels outside the claimed
ranges were used, the stickers of Loggins would not properly
function.
Inherency, however, may not be established by
probabilities or possibilities. In re Oelrich, 666 F.2d 578,
581, 212 USPQ 323, 326 (CCPA 1981). While it may be possible
that the adhesive coatings of Loggins’ stickers, which are
particularly useful for adhering a sheet of drafting paper or
film to a drafting table, inherently possess adhesion levels
corresponding to the levels claimed, that “possibility” is not
sufficient to establish a prima facie case of inherency.
Here, because of a paucity of detailed and specific
disclosures regarding the adhesive compositions of Loggins, a
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