Appeal No. 1999-1786
Application No. 08/821,738
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 look to the examiner’s
rejection of claims 1-8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Scharboneau in view of Fisher.
Before looking at the teachings of the applied
references, we look to the requirements of independent claim 5
on appeal. Claim 5 requires, in summary, a steering wheel
assembly (22) comprising a hub (28) including a bore having a
bearing surface (78) and a gear (42) within said bore of said
hub, said gear (42) having circumferentially spaced teeth (46)
extending radially outwardly from an annular collar (47), said
gear further including a web-flange (50) extending radially
outwardly from said collar (47) and circumferentially between
6
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