Appeal No. 1997-0524
Application No. 08/495,699
of complying with the burden of presenting a prima facie case
of
obviousness. Note In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24
USPQ2d
1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
With respect to claim 1, the sole independent claim
before us on appeal, the Examiner, as the basis for the
obviousness rejection, proposes to modify the hermetic
terminal assembly disclosed by Bowsky which includes a current
conducting pin extending through the housing wall of the
terminal assembly and which is surrounded by a sealing member.
As recognized by the Examiner, Bowsky’s disclosure is silent
as to the softening temperature of such sealing member and the
relationship of such softening temperature relative to other
components of the terminal assembly. To address this
deficiency, the Examiner turns to the terminal assembly
disclosure of LeMieux for a teaching of using a sealing member
material with a higher softening point temperature than a
fusible section of a conducting pin permitting the seal to
remain intact on melting of the fuse. In the Examiner’s view
(Answer, page 6), the skilled artisan would have found it
6
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