Appeal No. 96-1233
Application 08/259,368
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., 776 F.2d 281, 293, 227 USPQ
657, 664 (Fed. Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1017 (1986);
ACS Hosp. Sys., Inc. v. Montefiore Hosp., 732 F.2d 1572, 1577,
221 USPQ 929, 933 (Fed. Cir. 1984). These showings by the
examiner are an essential part of complying with the burden of
presenting a prima facie case of obviousness. Note In re
Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir.
1992).
With respect to claim 25, the examiner basically
asserts that Blasciak teaches all the recitations of claim 25
except for the step of periodically testing each of the memory
blocks to determine whether the memory block is allocated or
not. The examiner observes that the “basic capability” is
present in Blasciak, and “all of the elements necessary to
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