Appeal No. 2003-0342 Application 09/040,919 Hosp., 732 F.2d 1572, 1577, 221 USPQ 929, 933 (Fed. Cir. 1984). These showings by the examiner are an essential part of complying with the burden of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness. Note In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992). If that burden is met, the burden then shifts to the applicant to overcome the prima facie case with argument and/or evidence. Obviousness is then determined on the basis of the evidence as a whole and the relative persuasiveness of the arguments. See Id.; In re Hedges, 783 F.2d 1038, 1039, 228 USPQ 685, 686 (Fed. Cir. 1986); In re Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1472, 223 USPQ 785, 788 (Fed. Cir. 1984); and In re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048, 1052, 189 USPQ 143, 147 (CCPA 1976). Only those arguments actually made by appellants have been considered in this decision. Arguments which appellants could have made but chose not to make in the brief have not been considered and are deemed to be waived by appellants [see 37 CFR § 1.192(a)]. We consider first the rejection of claims 1, 4-9 and 12 based on Gustavson and Griffin. Independent claims 1, 7 and 12 stand or fall together [brief, page 7], and we will consider claim 1 to be the representative claim for this group. The examiner essentially finds that Gustavson teaches the claimed invention except that Gustavson does not teach that information -5-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007