Appeal No. 2004-1696
Application 09/988,181
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Heubner 879,047 Feb. 11, 1908
Purohit et al. (Purohit) 5,249,390 Oct. 5, 1993
Haltenhoff1 670,665 Jan. 31, 1966
(Belgian Patent)
The examiner has rejected appealed claims 1 through 5 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Haltenhoff, and appealed claims 6 through 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Haltenhoff in view of Purohit and Heubner.2
Appellant states that “[a]s to the first issue . . . claims 1-5 stand together” and “[a]s to the
second issue . . . claims 6-8 stand together with claims 1-5” (brief, pages 3-4). In any event, we
decide this appeal based on appealed claims 1 and 6 which are representative of the respective
groups of claims. 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7) (2003).
We affirm.
Rather than reiterate the respective positions advanced by the examiner and appellant, we
refer to the examiner’s answer and to appellant’s brief and reply for a complete exposition
thereof.
Opinion
We have carefully reviewed the record on this appeal and based thereon find ourselves in
agreement with the supported position advanced by the examiner that, prima facie, the claimed
flowerpot article encompassed by appealed claim 1 and appealed claim 6 would have been
obvious over Haltenhoff and the combined teachings of Haltenhoff, Purohit and Heubner to one
of ordinary skill in this art at the time the claimed invention was made.
Accordingly, since a prima facie case of obviousness has been established by the
examiner over the applied prior art, we have again evaluated all of the evidence of obviousness
and nonobviousness based on the record as a whole, giving due consideration to the weight of
1 We refer in our opinion to the translation of Haltenhoff prepared by the Translation Branch of
the USPTO Scientific Library on May 27, 2004. A copy of the translation is attach to this
decision.
2 The examiner states in the answer (page 3) that the grounds of rejection are set forth in the
final Office action of October 17, 2002 (Paper No. 9, pages 2-4).
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