Appeal No. 1998-0468
Application No. 08/291,825
OPINION
It is well established that the examiner has the initial burden under § 103 to establish
a prima facie case of obviousness. In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d
1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992); In re Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1471-72, 223 USPQ 785,
787-88 (Fed. Cir. 1984). To that end, the examiner must show that some objective
teaching or suggestion in the applied prior art, or knowledge generally available in the art
would have led one of ordinary skill in the art to arrive at the claimed invention. Pro-Mold
& Tool Co. v. Great Lakes Plastics, Inc., 75 F.3d 1568, 1573, 37 USPQ2d 1626, 1630
(Fed. Cir. 1996).
We have carefully considered all of the arguments advanced by the appellants and
the examiner. We reverse the rejection of claims 1-10 under section 103 as being
unpatentable over the combination of Kawabe and Niki for the reasons which follow.
Kawabe discloses resin binders that comprise a polyester and vinyl resin. The
binder is formed by concurrently polymerizing the polyester and vinyl resin including
fumaric acid. The binder resin based on a combination of a polyester resin and vinyl resin
yield developer compositions which provide fixed images of good environmental stability.
(Page 3, lines 36-39). The binder is produced by blending in a reactor a raw monomer for a
condensation polymerization and a raw monomer for a radical
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