Appeal No. 1999-1042 Page 4
Application No. 08/781,220
multiple outlets for medical gases at a convenient height. In
the embodiment of Figures 6 through 9, to which the claims in
the present application are directed, five vertical planar side
panels are provided on the column, with each being of a width
only slightly greater than the width of a conventional medical
gas service outlet. This results in each assembly being
mounted at an acute angle to the others, thus providing a large
number of assemblies that can be used simultaneously.
The Rejections Under 35 U.S.C. § 103
The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of
the prior art would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in
the art. See, for example, In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425,
208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981). In establishing a prima facie
case of obviousness, it is incumbent upon the examiner to
provide a reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would
have been led to modify a prior art reference or to combine
reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention. See Ex
parte Clapp, 227 USPQ 972, 973 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1985). To
this end, the requisite motivation must stem from some
teaching, suggestion or inference in the prior art as a whole
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