Appeal No. 1996-3591
Application No. 08/251,053
(Fed. Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1017 (1986); ACS
Hospital Systems, Inc. v. Montefiore Hospital, 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).
As the basis for the obviousness rejection, the Examiner
has initially relied on Iyengar for teaching the claimed
limitations directed to a multiplier with a stabilizing
feedback circuit. In recognizing Iyengar’s apparent failure
to disclose a voltage divider coupled to the feedback circuit,
the Examiner turns to Masaki which teaches a monitoring
circuit having a voltage divider which accepts a reference
voltage as an input. The Examiner reasons (Answer, page 5)
that, since Masaki places no restrictions on the origin of the
reference voltage, one of ordinary skill would have found it
obvious to use the output of Iyengar’s multiplier circuit as
the input reference voltage to Masaki’s voltage divider. The
resulting combination, the Examiner concludes, would then meet
the claimed requirement
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