Appeal No. 1998-0246
Application No. 08/397,536
The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of the references would have
suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Young, 927 F.2d 588, 591, 18
USPQ2d 1089, 1091 (Fed. Cir. 1991) and In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871,
881 (CCPA 1981). Indeed, a prima facie case of obviousness is established where the
reference teachings would appear to be sufficient for one of ordinary skill in the art having
those teachings before him to make the proposed combination or modification. See In re
Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972).
One of ordinary skill in the art reading Petersen's disclosure would have appreciated
that the cut swatches must be spaced from one another after they are severed from the ribbon
and would have looked to known techniques for achieving such spacing. As evidenced by
Dallaserra, one technique known in the prior art at the time of the appellant's invention for
achieving such spacing was to feed the upper and lower sheets at a non-intermittent feed rate
higher than the rate at which the severed insert strips are fed to the sheets. We share the
examiner's opinion that the combined teachings of Petersen and Dallaserra would have
suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art of packaging wound dressings at the time of the
appellant's invention feeding the heat sealable sheets 26, 27 via rollers 24, 25 at a rate higher
than the rate at which the ribbon of gauze or cotton is fed to the rollers 24, 25 in order to
achieve the spacing between cut swatches 22 needed to accommodate the sealing of the upper
and lower sheets to one another between the swatches.
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