Appeal No. 1998-2063
Application No. 08/531,087
(Fed. Cir. 1993)). The conclusion that the claimed subject
matter is prima facie obvious must be supported by evidence, as
shown by some objective teaching in the prior art or by
knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the
art that would have led that individual to combine the relevant
teachings of the references to arrive at the claimed invention.
See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed.
Cir. 1988).
With this as our background, we turn to the examiner’s
rejection of claims 1-17 and 23-25 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Reighart (Figure 9) in view of one of
Zahuranec or Bredal (Figure 2).
Prior to evaluating the combination of Reighart and
Zahuranec or Bredal, we look to the language of claim 1 on
appeal to derive an understanding of the scope and content of
the claim. Claim 1 requires a reclosable package comprising a
container having a three dimensional configuration, a tab at a
first end, a space for containing a product, and an opening to
allow the product to be placed in and removed from the space in
5
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