Appeal No. 1998-1746
Application No. 08/427,462
As for claim 1, we conclude that the examiner has
established a prima facie case of obviousness based upon the
collective teachings of Kumar, Wehner et al. and Wehner.
Appellants disagree, primarily arguing that the patentability
of their method resides in the step of producing
irregularities across a selected area on a surface to provide
increased uniformity of sites for forming micro-tips or cones.
We find this argument to be unpersuasive for the following
reasons.
First of all, as pointed out by the examiner, both of the
Wehner references suggest that surface roughness is a result-
effective variable with regard to cone formation. Thus,
Wehner et al. (p. 1146) indicates that cones "tend to
congregate at scratches and are more abundant at rough
surfaces." More particularly, Wehner (paragraph bridging
pages 1828 and 1829) specifically indicates that the critical
threshold for cone formation is a function of many parameters
including, inter alia, "surface roughness." Moreover, Wehner
specifically demonstrates in Fig. 12 how indentations and
scratches deliberately produced with a diamond scriber promote
cone formation on an otherwise electropolished copper surface.
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