Appeal No. 2000-1961
Application 08/840,200
set in response to changes in the operating environment of said
mechanism."
The examiner finds that McDonald provides a record of the
environmental data for comparison to baseline data and concludes
that it would have been obvious to apply the techniques of
McDonald to each of Hill, Hale, or Arcella because McDonald
teaches that valve performance is influenced by ambient
temperature and humidity and because changes in valve performance
cannot be fully evaluated without comparing test environmental
data with baseline environmental data (FR18-20).
As noted in the analysis of claim 20, we find no suggestion
in Hill, Hale, Arcella, or McDonald of making changes to the
baseline data as claimed. The examiner's conclusion that it
would have been obvious to modify the baseline data set is based
on made-up reasons, not any factual teachings or suggestions in
the references. Moreover, McDonald does not cure the
deficiencies of Hill, Hale, and Arcella with respect to the
limitation of "a housing for assembling said system in a unitary
assembly in operative communication with said mechanism" in
claim 1. We conclude that the examiner has failed to establish a
prima facie case of obviousness with respect to claim 14. The
rejection of claim 14 is reversed.
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