Appeal No. 1996-3535
Application No. 08/236,006
for electroplating. The examiner’s opinion that it would have
been obvious to combine these disparate processes plainly
lacks probative support.
Even if the electroless metallizing process of Metzger
were provided with a stabilizer from Kurosaki’s electroplating
process, the result would not correspond to the here claimed
process. This is because neither of the applied references
contains any teaching or suggestion concerning particulate
matter stabilizers of the type and at the concentrations
necessary to effect the Zeta potential shift required by the
appealed claims. It is apparent that this aspect of the
examiner’s rejection is impermissibly based upon pure
speculation and conjecture. It has been long established,
however, that a rejection based on section 103 must rest upon
a factual basis rather than conjecture, speculation or
assumptions. In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017, 154 USPQ 173,
178 (CCPA 1967).
The decision of the examiner is reversed.
REVERSED
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