Appeal No. 1997-2247 Page 5
Application No. 08/259,798
If the examiner fails to establish a prima facie
case, the rejection is improper and will be
overturned. In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5
USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988).
With these principles in mind, we consider the rejection of
claims 1-9 and 12.
Claims 1-9 and 12
Recognizing that Hardee does not show simultaneous
application of a voltage to all the word lines of a storage
array, the examiner opines, "[i]t would have been obvious ...
to realize that the voltage can also be simultaneously being
[sic] applied to each of Hardee's word lines." (Examiner's
Answer at 3.) The appellant argues, "Hardee et al. simply
contains no teachings or suggestion of simultaneous voltage
application to wordlines. Hardee et al. expressly teaches
sequential voltage application to its wordlines." (Appeal Br.
at 3.)
Claims 1-9 and 12 each specify in pertinent part the
following limitations: "an array of storage cells arranged in
rows and columns; ... a decoder, responsive to a control
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