Appeal No. 2000-1888
Application No. 08/885,984
assert that the Examiner provides no suggestion for combining the
references and merely employs hindsight (brief, page 11).
In rejecting claims 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).
We disagree with Appellants’ arguments because, as discussed
above, McAteer and Lundgren both teach configuring the microphone
boot for achieving a desired directional response pattern that
suppresses sounds in an off-axis direction. We also observe that
the internal noise of the computer, which propagates from
internal sources in a direction other than the non-zero response
direction of the microphone, would be inherently attenuated.
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