Appeal No. 97-2625 Application No. 08/118,925 suggestion supporting the combination" (footnote omitted). See ACS Hosp. Sys., Inc. v. Montefiore Hosp., 732 F.2d 1572, 1577, 221 USPQ 929, 933 (Fed. Cir. 1984). Here, the prior art contains none. As our reviewing court has said, "[t]o imbue one of ordinary skill in the art with knowledge of the invention in suit, when no prior art reference or references of record convey or suggest that knowledge, is to fall victim to the insidious effect of a hindsight syndrome wherein that which only the inventor taught is used against its teacher." W. L. Gore & Assoc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1553, 220 USPQ 303, 312-13 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851 (1984). Thus, the examiner’s conclusion that the differences between the subject matter recited in claims 1 and 13 and the applied prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art is not well founded. Accordingly, we will not sustain the standing 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of these claims. Claims 2 through 12, dependent on claim 1, and claim 14, dependent on claim 13, contain all of the limitations of their -8-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007