Ex parte MARKANDEY et al. - Page 3




              Appeal No. 1997-1981                                                                                         
              Application No. 08/298,547                                                                                   


                     Claims 1, 5 and 6 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over                     
              Hartnett  in view of Nakamura and Niehaus.                                                                   
                     Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and the                     
              appellants regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the examiner's                         
              answer (Paper No. 13, mailed Dec. 23, 1996) for the examiner's reasoning in support of                       
              the rejections, and to the appellants’ brief (Paper No. 12, filed Nov. 13, 1996) for the                     
              appellants’ arguments thereagainst.                                                                          


                                                        OPINION                                                            

                     In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to the                   
              appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the                        
              respective positions articulated by the appellants and the examiner.  As a consequence of                    
              our review, we make the determinations which follow.                                                         
                     “To reject claims in an application under section 103, an examiner must show an                       

              unrebutted prima facie case of obviousness.   See In re Deuel, 51 F.3d 1552, 1557,  34                       

              USPQ2d 1210, 1214 (Fed. Cir. 1995).  In the absence of a proper prima facie case of                          
              obviousness, an applicant who complies with the other statutory requirements is entitled to                  
              a patent.   See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445,  24  USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir.                        

              1992).  On appeal to the Board, an applicant can overcome a rejection by showing                             


                                                            3                                                              





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007