Appeal No. 1999-1109
Application No. 08/359,904
Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103
There are three rejections under this ground of rejection.
We first go over the guidelines of a rejection under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103.
In our analysis, we are guided by the general proposition
that in an appeal involving a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103,
an examiner is under a burden to make out a prima facie case of
obviousness. If that burden is met, the burden of going forward
then shifts to the applicant to overcome the prima facie case
with argument and/or evidence. Obviousness is then determined
on the basis of the evidence as a whole and the relative
persuasiveness of the arguments. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d
1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992); In re Hedges,
783 F.2d 1038, 1039, 228 USPQ 685, 686 (Fed. Cir. 1986); In re
Piasecki,
745 F.2d 1468, 1472, 223 USPQ 785, 788 (Fed. Cir. 1984); and In
re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048, 1052, 189 USPQ 143, 147 (CCPA 1976).
We are further guided by the precedent of our reviewing court
that the limitations from the disclosure are not to be imported
into the claims. In re Lundberg, 244 F.2d 543, 113 USPQ 530
(CCPA 1957);
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