Appeal No. 95-3265
Application 08/047,162
Claims 1 through 22 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103
as unpatentable over Morishita.
Reference is made to the brief and answer for the
respective positions of appellant and the examiner.
OPINION
We reverse.
The examiner has the initial burden of presenting a
prima facie case of unpatentability. If the examiner does not
present a prima facie case of unpatentability, then, without
more, the applicant is entitled to grant of the patent. If that
burden is met, the burden of coming forward with evidence or
argument shifts to the applicant. After evidence or argument is
submitted by the applicant, patentability is determined on the
totality of the record, by a preponderance of the evidence with
due regard to the persuasiveness of the arguments. In re
Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir.
1992).
The examiner's rejection relies on Morishita which the
examiner states, at page 4 of the answer,
teaches as a background the well known
art of combining mask set databases of
different design rules to generate a new
mask set database for a more complex IC
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