Ex parte ABRAMS et al. - Page 7




          Appeal No. 1998-0805                                                        
          Application No. 08/599,508                                                  


               The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings                
          of the prior art would have suggested to one of ordinary skill              
          in the art.  See, for example, In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413,                  
          425, 208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).  In establishing a prima                
          facie case of obviousness, it is incumbent upon the examiner                
          to provide a reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would              
          have been led to modify a prior art reference or to combine                 
          reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention.  See                
          Ex parte Clapp, 227 USPQ 972, 973 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1985).              
          To this end, the requisite motivation must stem from some                   
          teaching, suggestion or inference in the prior art as a whole               
          or from the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary                
          skill in the art and not from the appellant's disclosure.                   
          See, for example, Uniroyal ,Inc. V. Rudkin-Wiley Corp., 837                 
          F.2d 1044, 1052, 5 USPQ2d 1434, 1052 (Fed. Cir.), cert.                     
          denied, 488 U.S. 825 (1988).                                                
               Independent claim 7 stands rejected as being unpatentable              
          over Wilke in view of Hodson.  Claim 7 recites, inter alia,                 
          the chamber and the first and second air flow passageways that              
          also were recited in claim 1, albeit in somewhat different                  

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