Appeal No. 95-2765
Application 08/025,474
from the developer baths or developer prebaths. The disclosures
of Kojima, discussed above, raise an inference of obviousness for
the subject matter defined by the composition claims on appeal.
We have carefully considered each of the arguments
advanced by appellants and each of the declarations made of
record to support appellants’ arguments in this appeal. However,
with respect to the rejection of the composition claims based on
Kojima, we agree with the examiner that the evidence of obvious-
ness outweighs the evidence of nonobviousness. Particularly, we
are not convinced by the experimentation reported in the
auxiliary declaration filed by John Texter on July 5, 1994 that
the image forming method described by the United States Patent
No. 5,037,726 to Kojima is inoperable. That specific developer
prebaths labeled PB1 and PB2 (with and without a specific nuclea-
tion agent) obliterated the direct-positive image of a specific
Eastman Kodak film does not satisfy appellants’ burden of showing
the inoperability of the Kojima patent (assigned to Fuji Photo
Film Co., Ltd.).
Initially, we note that a patent is presumed valid
(35 U.S.C. § 282), and this presumption of validity applies to a
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