Appeal No. 95-4966
Application No. 08/072,182
“Debe discloses a process for forming substantially
perpendicular organic whiskers on a substrate by vacuum vapor
depositing a thin . . . layer of organic material onto a
substrate” (Answer, page 5). The examiner concludes that it
would have been obvious “to use the method disclosed in Debe
to produce the structures on the substrate in Perrotta et al.
in view of the nonlimiting statement therein that the growths
can be formed on the substrate by ‘a number of different
processes such as the Gas Phase Method . . .’ and the
reference to ‘Other methods’ at col. 3, line 39.” (Answer,
page 6).
Appellant argues that Perrotta requires the filaments to
be substantially uni-directional in a direction other than
perpendicular to the substrate while the structures recited in
appealed claim 15 are perpendicular to the substrate (Brief,
page 8). Appellant also argues that there is no teaching or
suggestion or knowledge generally available in the art that
would lead a person skilled in the art to make the proposed
combination of Perrotta and Debe (Id. at pages 8-9).
“When a rejection depends on a combination of prior art
references, there must be some teaching, suggestion, or
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