Appeal No. 2000-2163 Page 4
Application No. 08/922,521
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).
Claim 1 differs from the Admitted Prior Art by reciting
the following heating step:
before the coated electric wire is press-connected with
the press-connecting terminal, the coating portion of the
coated electric wire is heated and softened so that a
force necessary for pressing the coated electric wire
into the notched slot [of the press-connecting terminal]
is reduced to be not larger than a predetermined value,
wherein the heated and softened areas of the coating
portion of the coated electric wire remain on the coated
electric wire as it is forced into the press-connecting
terminal.
Claim 3 differs from the Admitted Prior Art by reciting:
heating means for heating and softening the coating
portion of the coated electric wire so that a force
necessary for pressing the coated electric wire into the
notched slot [of the press-connecting terminal] is
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