Appeal No. 2003-2154
Application No. 09/735,895 Page 6
the opposite side of the slot. See, e.g., figures 5-7 of Gammel
and the corresponding text in the patent specification.
Given the teachings of Gammel (column 3, lines 67-69)
concerning the provision of the contact bumps for the purpose of
providing electrical connection with an inserted printed circuit
board, it is our view that it would have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art to arrive at a workable projection
height and size for each of the bumps of Gammel so as to arrive
at workable electrical contact properties for the bumps and, in
so doing, arrive at a projection (bump) height within the ranges,
as here claimed.2 See In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 1578, 16
USPQ2d 1934, 1936-37 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (the determination of
workable or even optimum values for result effective variables
would be within the ambit of one of ordinary skill in the art);
See also In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 276, 205 USPQ 215, 219 (CCPA
1980). Significantly, appellants have not established any
2 We observe that appellants, in their specification, page
3, acknowledge that it is known that the degree of electrical
contact between a contact band and an associated contact pad of a
circuit board depends on the mating force at the contacts and
area (size) of contact. It is axiomatic that consideration of
whether or not appellants’ claims define patentable subject
matter over the prior art cited by the examiner must, of
necessity, include consideration of the admitted state of the art
found in appellants' specification.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007