Appeal No. 1999-0296 Page 5
Application No. 08/483,552
level of ordinary skill was best determined by the references
of record); In re Oelrich, 579 F.2d 86, 91, 198 USPQ 210, 214
(CCPA 1978) ("[T]he PTO usually must evaluate ... the level of
ordinary skill solely on the cold words of the literature.").
Of course, “‘[e]very patent application and reference relies
to some extent upon knowledge of persons skilled in the art to
complement that [which is] disclosed ....’” In re Bode, 550
F.2d 656, 660, 193 USPQ 12, 16 (CCPA 1977) (quoting In re
Wiggins, 488 F.2d 538, 543, 179 USPQ 421, 424 (CCPA 1973)).
Those persons “must be presumed to know something” about the
art “apart from what the references disclose.” In re Jacoby,
309 F.2d 513, 516, 135 USPQ 317, 319 (CCPA 1962). With these
principles in mind, we consider the examiner's rejection and
the appellants' argument regarding the following claims:
• claims 1, 2, 6, 9-11, and 14
• claims 3, 7, 8, 12, 15, and 16
• claims 4, 13
• claim 5.
We begin with claims 1, 2, 6, 9-11, and 14.
I. Claims 1, 2, 6, 9-11, and 14
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007