Appeal No. 2004-1784
Application No. 09/685,372
layer of the endless rubber track disclosed by the Yokohama
Rubber Co. reference. Concerning these matters, the examiner
states that an artisan would have combined the applied reference
teachings in the manner here proposed “in order to increase the
strength of the inner guide lug and support layer thereby
reducing shear and wear between the inner guide lug member and
the support layer” (answer, page 4). Yet again, the examiner
points to nothing in the applied prior art which supports this
statement, and our independent study of this prior art reveals
that the examiner statement is utterly devoid of support by the
applied references and therefore conjectural at best.
The foregoing circumstances require us to determine that the
examiner has failed to establish a prima facie case of
obviousness with respect to the subject matter defined by
appealed independent claim 1. It necessarily follows that we
cannot sustain the examiner’s section 103 rejection of all
appealed claims as being unpatentable over the Yokohama Rubber
Co. reference in view of Sandstrom. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d
1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
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