Appeal No. 1999-2323
Application No. 08/434519
obvious matter of design choice for one of ordinary skill in
the art, since such an artisan would have perceived the
interior flooding angles to be result effective variables. In
this regard, it is well settled that, as a general rule, the
discovery of an optimum value or range of a result effective
variable is well within the skill of the art. See In re
Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 276, 205 USPQ 215, 219 (CCPA 1980).
Thus, we consider that one having ordinary skill in the art
would have found it obvious to have altered the angular
relationship between the walls of the receptacle in Wefler to
be in the claimed ranges of flooding angle so as to provide
for optimum drainage of the liquid bait to the area around the
porous pad (152) of the bait station. Such changes, in our
view, would involve nothing more than routine experimentation
and the application of common knowledge and common sense of
the person of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, we sustain the
examiner's rejection of claims 4 through 7 under 35 U.S.C. §
103(a).
To summarize, we have sustained both the examiner's
rejection of claims 1 and 8 through 11 under 35 U.S.C. §
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