Appeal No. 2002-2227 Page 3
Application No. 09/522,545
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
Claim 24 stands rejected as being unpatentable over Fukumoto in view of
Hamilton. It is the examiner’s view that Fukumoto discloses all of the subject matter
recited in the claim except for the requirement that “the controller causes the legs to
retract to move the vehicle downwardly relative to the ground surface, until the
orientation of the vehicle reaches the reference level plane” (Paper No. 6, page 3).
However, the examiner is of the view that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
found it obvious2 to provide the Fukumoto controller with such a feature in view of the
teachings of Hamilton, “in order to allow for faster and lower leveling of a vehicle”
(Paper No. 6, page 3). The appellants argue that the structure missing from Fukumoto
2The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of the prior art would have suggested to
one of ordinary skill in the art. See, for example, In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871, 881
(CCPA 1981). In establishing a prima facie case of obviousness, it is incumbent upon the examiner to
provide a reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would have been led to modify a prior art reference or
to combine reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention. See Ex parte Clapp, 227 USPQ 972,
973 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1985). To this end, the requisite motivation must stem from some teaching,
suggestion or inference in the prior art as a whole or from the knowledge generally available to one of
ordinary skill in the art and not from the appellant's disclosure. See, for example, Uniroyal, Inc. v. Rudkin-
Wiley Corp., 837 F.2d 1044, 1052, 5 USPQ2d 1434, 1439 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 825 (1988).
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