Appeal No. 98-0494
Application No. 07/954,056
article wherein the leg portion is seamless and
uninterrupted.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill
in the art at the time the invention was made to make omit
the circumferential band or welt on the leg portion of the
reference hose, inasmuch as pantyhose with seamless legs
are notoriously old and well known, as evidenced by the
reference to Fillmore.
However, consistent with appellant's arguments, the combined
teachings of Harris and Fillmore fail to render the overall
appearance of the claimed pantyhose article, both in its unstretched
state as illustrated in Figures 9 and 10 and in its stretched state
as illustrated in Figures 1, 11 and 12, obvious to a designer of
ordinary skill who designs articles of the type involved. Therefore,
we cannot sustain the rejection of the design claim under 35 U.S.C. §
103. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444
(Fed. Cir. 1992) (the examiner bears the initial burden of presenting
a prima facie case of unpatentability).
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