Appeal No. 2004-0317
Application No. 09/319,822
Reference is made to the brief and answer for the respective
positions of appellants and the examiner.
OPINION
In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner
bears the initial burden of presenting a prima facie case of
obviousness. See In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532, 28 USPQ2d
1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993). To reach a conclusion of
obviousness under § 103, the examiner must produce a factual
basis supported by a teaching in a prior art reference or shown
to be common knowledge of unquestionable demonstration. Our
reviewing court requires this evidence in order to establish a
prima facie case. In re Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1471-72, 223
USPQ 785, 787-88 (Fed. Cir. 1984). The examiner must not only
identify the elements in the prior art or that knowledge
generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art would
lead the individual to combine the relevant teachings of the
references. In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598
(Fed. Cir. 1988).
It is the examiner’s position that while Yasuki discloses a
controller receiving digital broadcast signals in both MPEG and
NTSC form, wherein a memory unit is shared, it does not disclose
a decompressor, a converter or a display processor. The examiner
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