Appeal No. 2006-1527
Application No. 10/302,223
the appellants have not established that those of ordinary skill
in the art knew what the appellants discovered regarding
instability. Hence, the record provides no reason to believe
that the appellants’ discovery would have dissuaded one of
ordinary skill in the art from combining Breivogel and Takahashi.
Second, Breivogel does not use a conventional diaphragm but,
rather, uses the solid polishing platen used by the appellants.
Third, the examiner’s motivation for combining the references was
that Takahashi teaches that the separately controllable fluid
chambers enable a wavy or warped substrate to be planarized (col.
8, lines 44-50). That motivation comes straight from Takahashi
and has nothing to do with the appellants’ disclosure.
We therefore conclude that the appellants’ claimed invention
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art over
the applied references.
DECISION
The rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103 of claims 16-22, 24,
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