Appeal No. 1997-3416 Page 3
Application No. 08/339,340
In rejecting the claim 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 the
reference teachings would appear to be sufficient for one of
ordinary skill in the relevant art having the references
before him to make the proposed combination or other
modification. See In re Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173
USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972). Furthermore, the conclusion that
the claimed subject matter is prima facie obvious must be
supported by evidence, such 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).
BP '830 is relied upon by the examiner for disclosing a
developer solution comprising an aqueous solution including
tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide in an amount corresponding to
the claimed nitrogen-containing organic base compound
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007