Ex parte WEITZEL et al - Page 4




          Appeal No. 96-1203                                                            
          Application 08/298,721                                                        


          appellants have made no separate arguments with respect to any of             
          the claims on appeal.  Accordingly, all the claims before us will             
          stand or fall together.  Note In re King, 801 F.2d 1324, 1325,                
          231 USPQ 136, 137 (Fed. Cir. 1986); In re Sernaker, 702 F.2d 989,             
          991, 217 USPQ 1, 3 (Fed. Cir. 1983).  Therefore, we will only                 
          consider the rejection against independent claim 1 as                         
          representative of all the claims on appeal.                                   
          In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, it is                              
          incumbent upon the examiner to establish a factual basis to                   
          support the legal conclusion of obviousness.  See In re Fine,                 
          837 F.2d 1071, 1073, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988).                    
          In so doing, the examiner is expected to make the factual                     
          determinations set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co. , 383 U.S. 1,            
          17, 148 USPQ 459, 467 (CCPA 1966), and to provide a reason why                
          one having ordinary skill in the pertinent art would have been                
          led to modify the prior art or to combine prior art references to             
          arrive at the claimed invention.  Such reason must stem from some             
          teaching, suggestion or implication in the prior art as a whole               
          or knowledge generally available to one having ordinary skill in              
          the art.  Uniroyal, Inc. v. Rudkin-Wiley Corp. , 837 F.2d 1044,               
          1051, 5 USPQ2d 1434, 1438 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 825             
          (1988); Ashland Oil, Inc. v. Delta Resins & Refractories, Inc. ,              

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