Appeal No. 97-2608
Application No. 08/568,146
THE REJECTION
Claims 1-4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Heinrichs in view of Kimura and Shaw.
The rejections are explained in the Examiner's Answer.
The opposing viewpoints of the appellants are set forth
in the Brief and the Reply Brief.
OPINION
In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 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)), which is established when the
teachings of the prior art itself would appear to have
suggested the claimed subject matter to one of ordinary skill
in the art (In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781, 783, 26 USPQ2d 1529,
1531 (Fed. Cir. 1993)). If the examiner fails to establish a
prima facie case, the rejection is improper and will be
overturned (In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596,
1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988)).
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