Appeal No. 1997-1221
Application No. 08/299,591
teachings and variables of the applied references. By way of
exemplification, the resulting article might have a metal
substrate thickness completely outside the here claimed range
upon being optimized to provide thermal insulation when used
inside a gas turbine engine pursuant to the teachings of
Thompson. Likewise, such optimization might result in a
nonwoven fabric having density, thickness and compressibility
values far outside the ranges claimed by the appellants.
In summary, it is our view that the examiner’s rejection
is based upon conjecture, speculation or assumptions in the
form of the above discussed presupposition. It is well
settled, 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). As a consequence, we cannot sustain the
examiner’s section 103 rejection of the appealed claims as
being unpatentable over Thompson in view of Lim.
The decision of the examiner is reversed.
REVERSED
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