Appeal No. 98-1922 Page 10
Application No. 08/253,721
furniture slide having arcuate ends. The examiner then
determined that it would have been obvious to a skilled
artisan to configure Maeda's slide (i.e., the slider device
shown in Figures 2-4) with arcuate ends.6
We agree with the examiner that the combined teachings of
Maeda's Figures 2-4 and Maeda's Figure 1 would have suggested
to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention
was made to provide arcuate ends on the slider device 3 for
self-evident reasons as pointed out by the examiner. In that
regard, we observe that an artisan must be presumed to know
something about the art apart from what the references
disclose (see In re Jacoby, 309 F.2d 513, 516, 135 USPQ 317,
319 (CCPA 1962)) and the conclusion of obviousness may be made
from "common knowledge and common sense" of the person of
ordinary skill in the art (see In re Bozek, 416 F.2d 1385,
1390, 163 USPQ 545, 549 (CCPA 1969)).
6The appellants did not reply to the examiner's
application of Figure 1 of Maeda.
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