Appeal No. 2000-0051 Page 6
Application No. 08/545,629
including the step of concentrating the mixture as recited in
step a of claim 10. In this context, the examiner must provide
specific reasons or suggestions for combining the teachings and
disclosures of the applied secondary reference with Renk. In
this context, the examiner's rejection falls short in not
identifying a convincing and particularized suggestion, reason or
motivation to combine the references or make the proposed
modification in a manner so as to arrive at the claimed
invention. See In re Rouffet, 149 F.3d 1350, 1359, 47 USPQ2d
1453, 1459 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
For the foregoing reasons, we determine that the examiner
has not established a prima facie case of obviousness in view of
the reference evidence. Because we reverse on this basis, we
need not reach the issue of the countervailing evidence discussed
by appellants at page 13 of the brief. See In re Geiger, 815
F.2d 686, 688, 2 USPQ2d 1276, 1278 (Fed. Cir. 1987).
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