Appeal No. 2002-1527 Page 15
Application No. 08/885,817
2. Obviousness Determination
"In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. Section 103, the examiner bears the initial
burden of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness." In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531,
1532, 28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993) (citing In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443,
1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992)). "'a prima facie case of obviousness is
established when the teachings from the prior art itself would . . . have suggested the
claimed subject matter to a person of ordinary skill in the art.'" In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781,
783, 26 USPQ2d 1529, 1531 (Fed. Cir. 1993) (quoting In re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048,
1051, 189 USPQ 143, 147 (CCPA 1976)).
Here, although the passage of Henrion cited by the examiner discloses "an 8-bit
mask word MSK," col. 17, ll. 66-67, we are unpersuaded that the mask word specifies,
or would have suggested specifying, at least one of a group of senders prohibited from
sending to a receiver. To the contrary, the MSK "identif[ies] the different routing groups
to which a copy [of a cell] is to be sent. . . ." Col. 16, ll. 59-60. Therefore, we reverse
the rejection of claim 6; of claim 21; of claim 30; and of claim 31, which depends from
the latter.
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