Appeal No. 97-0088 Application No. 29/015,807 OPINION In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to the appellant's drawings, specification and claim and to the respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a consequence of our review, we have determined that the examiner's rejection of the appellant's design claim under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Hyde in view of Gallagher cannot be sustained. At the outset, we keep in mind that, in a rejection of a design claim under 35 U.S.C. § 103, there is a requirement that there must be a single basic reference, a something in existence, the design characteristics of which are basically the same as the claimed design in order to support a holding of obviousness. See In re Harvey, 12 F.3d 1061, 1063, 29 USPQ2d 1206, 1208 (Fed. Cir. 1993) and In re Rosen, 673 F.2d 388, 391, 213 USPQ 347, 350 (CCPA 1982). The examiner relies upon the appearance of the wall scraper of Hyde as the basic design reference, i.e., as a "Rosen" reference (answer, pp. 2 & 3). The appellant concedes (brief, p. 3) that the wall scraper of Hyde closely simulates the shape of 4Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007