Appeal No. 2000-0863 Page 5
Application No. 08/760,303
Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981). But
it "cannot be established by combining the teachings of the
prior art to produce the claimed invention, absent some
teaching or suggestion supporting the combination." ACS Hosp.
Sys., Inc. v. Montefiore Hosp., 732 F.2d 1572, 1577, 221 USPQ
929, 933 (Fed. Cir. 1984). And "teachings of references can
be combined only if there is some suggestion or incentive to
do so." Id.
We are constrained to reverse the decision of the
examiner to reject claims 1 to 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 since
there is no evidence in the applied prior art that would have
made it obvious at the time the invention was made to a person
having ordinary skill in the art to have laminated a layer of
a dimensionally stable material to the foam hanger pad of
Osaki. While foams are well known to be covered with
dimensionally stable materials to protect the foam from damage
on the exposed surfaces, we fail to find any suggestion
therein for an artisan to have modified the foam hanger pad of
Osaki for the reasons set forth in the brief (pp. 7-9) and the
reply brief (pp. 2-4). In fact, the advantages of utilizing a
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