Appeal No. 1999-1584
Application No. 08/579,242
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Watson in view of Perry. Claims 8, 12 and 16 stand rejected
as being unpatentable over Watson, Perry and Kishi.
Rather than repeat the arguments of appellant and the
examiner, we make reference to the brief and the answer for
the respective details thereof.
OPINION
We have considered the rejections advanced by the
examiner and the supporting arguments. We have, likewise,
reviewed the appellant’s arguments set forth in the brief.
We reverse.
In our analysis, we are guided by the general proposition
that in an appeal involving a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103,
an examiner is under a burden to make out a prima facie case
of obviousness. If that burden is met, the burden of going
forward then shifts to the applicant to overcome the prima
facie case
with argument and/or evidence. Obviousness is then determined
on the basis of the evidence as a whole and the relative
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007