Appeal No. 2005-1069
Application No. 10/061,137
The examiner relies upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Deaton 3,509,645 May 5, 1970
Smith 2,683,068 Apr. 30, 1993
(French patent application)
Serge 5,941,712 Aug. 24, 1999
Appellant's claimed invention is directed to an educational
system for simulating the discovery and preparation of fossils.
The system comprises a simulated collection area that simulates a
geographic locale containing an item of interest, e.g., a fossil,
a bulk collection material comprising the item of interest that
is placed into the simulated collection area, and a simulated
preparation facility for preparing the item of interest for use.
Appealed claims 1-4, 6-10 and 12-16 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Deaton in view of
Serge. Claims 11 and 17-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over the stated combination of references
further in view of Smith.
Appellant submits at page 6 of the Brief that the following
groups of claims stand or fall together: (I) claims 1-4 and 6;
(II) claims 7-14; and (III) claims 15-20.
We have thoroughly reviewed each of appellant's arguments
for patentability. However, we are in complete agreement with
the examiner that the claimed subject matter would have been
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