Ex Parte GRUNE et al - Page 4




          Appeal No. 2003-1907                                                        
          Application No. 09/214,893                                                  


          do not challenge the examiner's legal conclusion that it would              
          have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize           
          the fuel cell system of Fletcher in an electrical vehicle.                  
          Rather, the principal argument advanced by appellants is that               
          "[n]either Fletcher nor Lorenz mention or suggest [sic, mentions            
          or suggests] to use the dynamic pressure of a relative airstream            
          with respect to a fuel cell system for cooling purposes in a car"           
          (page 5 of Brief, second paragraph).  Appellants urge that                  
          Rogers, relied upon by the examiner for a teaching of using air             
          caused by the motion of a vehicle to cool a device in the                   
          vehicle, "has no relation to fuel cell systems at all" (id.).  In           
          essence, it is appellants' argument that there is no teaching in            
          the cited prior art for cooling the fuel cell system of an                  
          electrical vehicle by arranging the system in the vehicle so that           
          the relative airstream of the vehicle in motion serves to cool              
          the fuel cell system.                                                       
               While appellants' argument has some appeal at first blush,             
          we must agree with the examiner that inasmuch as it was known in            
          the art to utilize the airstream generated by a moving vehicle to           
          cool systems of the vehicle which need cooling, it would have               
          been a matter of prima facie obviousness for one of ordinary                
          skill in the art to employ the well-known presence of a cooling             


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