Ex parte RAZA et al. - Page 6




          Appeal No. 98-1457                                         Page 6           
          Application No. 08/530,006                                                  


          not sustain the examiner's rejections of claims 1 through 15                
          under                                                                       
          35 U.S.C. § 103.  Our reasoning for this determination                      
          follows.                                                                    


               In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner                
          bears the initial burden of presenting a prima facie case of                
          obviousness.  See In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532, 28                    
          USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993).  A prima facie case of                  
          obviousness is established by presenting evidence that the                  
          reference teachings would appear to be sufficient for one of                
          ordinary skill in the relevant art having the references                    
          before him to make the proposed combination or other                        
          modification.  See In re Lintner, 9 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ               
          560, 562 (CCPA 1972).  Furthermore, the conclusion that the                 
          claimed subject matter is prima facie obvious must be                       
          supported by evidence, as shown by some objective teaching in               
          the prior art or by knowledge generally available to one of                 



          claims 1 through 15, we have not considered the evidence of                 
          nonobviousness submitted by the appellants (i.e., the May 14,               
          1996 declaration of Irfan Raza).                                            






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