Appeal No. 98-1030
Application 08/424,115
problem addressed by the appellants' invention, much less its
solution. The examiner's determination that Ohkuwa's window
glass 44 has a diameter large enough so that, when used in
conjunction with Klein's transparent cover, a virtual image of
an outer edge portion of the window glass would lie outside
the visual field of Ohkuwa's objective optical system 14 rests
on unfounded speculation and assumption and finds no factual
support in Ohkuwa or any of the other applied references.
Given the lack of any meaningful disclosure by Ohkuwa of the
visual characteristics of the objective optical system, the
mere fact that the window glass has a relatively large
diameter as compared to the lenses of the objective optical
system does not provide a sufficient basis for the examiner's
conclusion.
We are therefore constrained to conclude that the
reference evidence advanced by the examiner fails to establish
that the differences between the subject matter recited in
claim 1 and the 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
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