Appeal No. 2004-1123
Application No. 09/933,503
removal element of Baseman used to reduce the chemical vapors,
e.g., water vapor, that might damage or degrade the semiconductor
wafers stored in the SMIF pod would be located in the cavity
where the wafer cassette is carried, i.e., inside the liners of
the combination SMIF pod as posited by the examiner and,
following the teachings of Baseman and Roberson, such vapor
removal element would provide an environment inside the SMIF
pod/liners having a "Relative Vapor Concentration (RVC) or
relative humidity of less that 10%, and possibly as low as 0.1%.
In reaching our above conclusion, we note that the test for
obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference
may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary
reference, nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly
suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test
is what the combined teachings of the references would have
suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art at the time of
appellants' invention. See, In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425,
208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981). Moreover, we emphasize that we
have presumed skill on the part of the artisan, rather than the
converse. See In re Sovish, 769 F.2d 738, 743, 226 USPQ 771, 774
(Fed. Cir 1985).
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