Appeal No. 2002-2145
Application No. 09/113,808
focused on food quality without regard to pest abatement.
Nevertheless, an obviousness conclusion is appropriate for the
simple reason that an artisan would have considered the
maintenance of food quality pursuant to Urushizaki’s teaching to
be desirable in a method for disinfesting pests in food products
such as citrus fruit.
It is here appropriate to express our observation that the
appellants’ arguments amount to an attack of the applied
references considered individually. It is well settled, however,
that one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references
individually where the rejection is based on a combination of
references. In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 426, 208 USPQ 871, 882
(CCPA 1981). This because the test for obviousness is what the
combined teachings of the references would have suggested to
those of ordinary skill in the art. Keller, 642 F.2d at 425, 208
USPQ at 881.
For the reasons discussed above and in the answer, it is our
determination that the combined teachings of the references
applied by the examiner would have suggested practicing Liston’s
method on citrus fruit specifically, in view of the of the
Florida Entomologist reference, and at temperatures of the type
8
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