Appeal No. 2002-0901
Application 09/126,996
position is nothing but a conclusory opinion which is not
supported by any of the evidence of record in this case [reply
brief].
We will not sustain the examiner’s rejection of claim 1 for
essentially the reasons argued by appellant in the briefs. The
only evidence on this record which suggests setting the correct
time and date before a predetermined date occurs comes from
appellant’s own disclosure. The examiner’s mere opinion that it
would have been obvious to the artisan to modify the prior art so
as to arrive at the claimed invention lacks any support from the
applied prior art. As argued by appellant, neither the examiner
nor the Board of Patent appeals and Interferences can simply
substitute their opinion for evidence lacking in the record.
Each of independent claims 13, 20 and 27 contains
limitations similar to the limitations considered above with
respect to claim 1. Therefore, we also do not sustain the
examiner’s rejection of any of the independent claims on appeal
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