Appeal No. 2002-2305
Application No. 09/473,792
considered the nut (33) of Priest to be a "cap" and the
examiner's conclusion (answer, page 8) that "a person of ordinary
skill in the art could have appreciated that Kamazawa's head
(applicator) could include a cap in view of the Priest's teaching
so that the head (applicator) could be removed or replaced more
easier," to be totally without support and based entirely on an
improper hindsight reconstruction of the claimed subject matter
clearly devised after having read appellant's specification and
claims.
As is apparent from the foregoing, it is our determination
that the examiner has failed to establish a prima facie case of
obviousness with regard to the subject matter of claims 1, 9, 10,
11, 13, 15 and 17 on appeal. Thus, the rejections posited by the
examiner have not been sustained and the decision of the examiner
to reject those claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) either on the
basis of Kamazawa alone or based on the collective teachings of
Kamazawa and Priest, is reversed.
1010
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