Appeal No. 98-2034
Application No. 08/571,276
In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103 the examiner
bears the initial burden of presenting a prima facie case of
obviousness. In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532, 28 USPQ2d
1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443,
1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992). Only if that
burden is met
does the burden of coming forward with evidence or argument
shift to the applicant. Id. If the examiner fails to
establish a prima facie case, the rejection is improper and
will be
overturned. In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596,
1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988). In order to establish the prima facie
obviousness of a claimed invention, all the claim limitations
must be taught or suggested by the prior art. In re Royka,
490 F.2d 981, 985, 180 USPQ 580, 583 (CCPA 1974).
Independent claim 1 is directed to a casing board for use
as an information displaying and storage device comprising a
generally rectangular rigid paper substrate having inner and
outer surfaces, an opaque intermediate covering layer affixed
to said substrate and covering at least the outer surface
thereof, and a transparent outer layer formed with at least
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007