Appeal No. 2006-1554 Page 11 Application No. 10/369,819 “In considering motivation in the obviousness analysis, the problem examined is not the specific problem solved by the invention but the general problem that confronted the inventor before the invention was made. Kahn, 441 F.3d at 988, 78 USPQ2d at 1336 (citations omitted). In this case, the general problem to be solved was to develop a computer with removable panels that may be removed and replaced easily without lending themselves to inadvertent or mischievous removal. To establish a prima facie case of obviousness, the references being combined do not need to explicitly suggest combining their teachings. See e.g., Kahn, 441 F.3d at 987-88, 78 USPQ2d at 1337-38 (“the teaching, motivation, or suggestion may be implicit from the prior art as a whole, rather than expressly stated in the references”); and In re Nilssen, 851 F.2d 1401, 1403, 7 USPQ2d 1500, 1502 (Fed. Cir. 1988) (“for the purpose of combining references, those references need not explicitly suggest combining teachings.”). An explicit teaching that identifies and selects elements from different sources and states that they should be combined in the same way as in the invention at issue, is rarely found in the prior art. As precedent illustrates, many factors are relevant to the motivation-to-combine aspect of the obviousness inquiry, such as the field of the specific invention, the subject matter of the references, the extent to which they are in the same or related fields of technology, the nature of the advance made by the applicant, and the maturity and congestion of the field. . . . Precedent has also recognized that “[t]he suggestion or motivation to combine references does not have to be stated expressly; rather it may be shown by reference to the prior art itself, to the nature of the problem solved byPage: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007