Appeal No. 2006-0791 Ex parte Gore Enterp. Holdings, Inc.
[60] A person having ordinary skill in the art would have known about the production
and performance of polyolefin films for ion-exchange membranes.
[61] A person having ordinary skill in the art would have particularly known about the
production and performance of expanded PTFE for ion-exchange membranes.
[62] A person having ordinary skill in the art would have known that
polytetrafluoroethylene is a fluorinated polyolefin.
[63] A person having ordinary skill in the art would have understood the benefits of
making the membrane as thin and porous as possible.
[64] A person having ordinary skill in the art would have also understood that thinness
and porosity impose costs in terms of loss of mechanical strength, which would have to be
addressed in any practical device.
DISCUSSION
The examiner bears the burden of establishing obviousness. The burden can be met by
showing objective teaching in the prior art or knowledge generally available to one of ordinary
skill in the art would lead that individual to combine the relevant teachings of the references.
The applicant may then attack the examiner's showing or may present objective evidence to
support a conclusion of nonobviousness. In re Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1265, 23 USPQ2d 1780,
1783 (Fed. Cir. 1992). Gore attacks the rejection on four bases: (1) the ionic conductance rate
has not been shown to be inherent, (2) the micropores are not filled and occluded, (3) PTFE
cannot be substituted into Ito, and (4) proper motivation to combine the references is lacking.
We determine that the examiner has not shown that the recited ionic conductance rate is an
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