Appeal No. 1997-2032
Application 08/229,278
When the teachings of Baxter, Hug, Scotti and Otema are
considered collectively, it does not appear to us that they
would have in any way fairly suggested their combination to
one having ordinary skill in the art, as proposed by the
examiner, so as to arrive at the frame assembly defined in
appellant's independent claims 7 and 11 on appeal. While we
fully appreciate the examiner's evaluation of the applied
patents, and have ourselves considered such references with an
eye towards the level of skill that is presumed on the part of
those practicing in the art at issue, we must agree with
appellant that in this particular instance the combination
proposed by the examiner is based on what appellant teaches
and not on what the prior art references would have fairly
taught or suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art at the
time of appellant’s invention.
As appellant has pointed out in the brief and various
reply briefs, the modular storage and data retrieval system of
Baxter includes self-contained, unitary, modular cartridge
cells and drive cells (27, 28 and 31, respectively) which are
assembled together with a back plate (29) of a cabinet (21) by
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007