Ex parte WHITE - Page 4




          Appeal No. 1999-2456                                       Page 4           
          Application No. 08/655,649                                                  


          claims, to the applied prior art, and to the respective                     
          positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner.  Upon              
          evaluation of the evidence before us, it is our conclusion                  
          that the evidence adduced by the examiner is insufficient to                
          establish a prima facie case of obviousness with respect to                 
          the claims under appeal.  Accordingly, we will not sustain the              
          examiner's rejection of claims 1, 2 and 7 to 15 under 35                    
          U.S.C. § 103.  Our reasoning for this determination follows.                


               In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner                
          bears the initial burden of presenting a prima facie case of                
          obviousness.  See In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532, 28                    
          USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993).  A prima facie case of                  
          obviousness is established by presenting evidence that would                
          have led one of ordinary skill in the art 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) and In re Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013,               
          1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972).                                        










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