Appeal No. 1997-1221
Application No. 08/299,591
the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 103. It follows that we cannot
sustain the section 103 rejection advanced by the examiner on
this appeal. Our reasons are set forth below.
As correctly pointed out by the appellants, neither
Thompson nor Lim contains any teaching or suggestion relating
to soundproofness which is a characteristic of the here
claimed member. That is, the articles or members disclosed by
Thompson and Lim are designed to possess certain
characteristics such as
thermal insulation but not the soundproofness characteristic
under consideration. This deficiency of the applied
references is pivotally significant.
This is because the examiner’s rejection is based upon
the proposition that it would have been obvious to combine the
reference teachings and to optimize certain variables taught
by the references as being result effective in order to
thereby obtain an article or member corresponding to the
appellants’ claimed soundproof heat shield member. For
example, as reflected in the aforenoted quotation, the
examiner concludes that
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill
in the art at the time the invention was made to
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007