Appeal No. 1998-1288
Application No. 08/502,817
inductor. The examiner bases his position on nothing more
than a perceived inherent property of the (gapped) magnetic
core 47 of Zansky. A prima facie case of obviousness is not
established by mere conjecture of the examiner. The claims
also recite a specific property of the loose coupling which
the examiner has dismissed as routine skill of the artisan.
The obviousness of the specific property recited in
appellant’s claims also cannot be met by the mere conjecture
of what the examiner deems to be obvious. The examiner has
failed to provide us with an evidentiary record which clearly
supports the obviousness rejection.
We also agree with appellant that the examiner has not
supported his position that it would have been obvious for the
series-combination of an inductor and a capacitor to be
naturally resonant at a frequency lower than the fundamental
frequency of the gas discharge lamp. Zansky discloses a
ballast circuit operating at a resonant frequency equal to the
fundamental frequency. The examiner has pointed to no
specific portion of Cox, and we have found none, which
suggests that the Zansky ballast circuit would be improved by
having the resonant frequency lower than the fundamental
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