Appeal No. 96-2060
Application No. 08/308,205
Rioja et al. (Rioja) 5,066,342 Nov. 19,
1991
(application filing date: June 19,
1989)
All of the claims on appeal stand rejected under 35
U.S.C.
§ 103 as being unpatentable over acknowledged prior art on
page 1, lines 12-18, of the instant specification in view of
Rioja.
Based upon the record before us, we agree with appellants
for the reasons stated in their Appeal Brief that the examiner
has failed to present a prima facie case of obviousness.
Accordingly, we are compelled to reverse the rejection at
issue.
There appears to be no dispute that the “intermediate
thermo-mechanical treatment step” and the “final thermo-
mechanical treatment step” of the instant claims are
conventional operations in the art of treating aluminum alloy
matrix composites (instant specification: page 1, lines 3-20;
page 2, lines 18-21 and lines 32-34; page 3, line 10).
However, as indicated in appellants’ Appeal Brief, there
appears to be nothing in the prior art relied upon by the
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