Appeal No. 2002-0507 Page 6
Application No. 09/405,872
we reverse the anticipation rejection of claim 1; of claims 2-9, which depend therefrom;
of claim 12; and of claims 13-19, which depend therefrom.
Obviousness Determination
"In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. Section 103, the examiner bears the initial
burden of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness." In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531,
1532, 28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993) (citing In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443,
1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992)). "'A prima facie case of obviousness is
established when the teachings from the prior art itself would . . . have suggested the
claimed subject matter to a person of ordinary skill in the art.'" In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781,
783, 26 USPQ2d 1529, 1531 (Fed. Cir. 1993) (quoting In re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048,
1051, 189 USPQ 143, 147 (CCPA 1976)). "A reference may be said to teach away
when a person of ordinary skill, upon reading the reference, would be discouraged
from following the path set out in the reference, or would be led in a direction divergent
from the path that was taken by the applicant." In re Gurley, 27 F.3d 551, 553, 31
USPQ2d 1130, 1131 (Fed. Cir. 1994)
Here, Dennis mentions a connector block having wire wrap pins extending
upwardly therefrom. Specifically, "[a] commonly used terminal connecting block is
referred to as the '66-type' quick connect block. Such a connecting block includes an
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