Appeal No. 2006-3105
Application No. 09/397,494
Layne teaches all of the limitations recited in independent claim 26 including the probe
array experiment. The Summary of the Invention of Layne teaches that the process
controller translates user commands into test suite commands and for communicating
results to the user. In column 8 of Layne, the discussion of Figure 4 teaches the use of a
remote automated testing and analysis capability and the use of the Internet. The
communication to the remote lab includes instructions enabling program control tools to
define and perform automated tests. Therefore, we find that Layne alone teaches and
fairly suggests the method of independent claim 26. Furthermore, the Examiner has
combined the teachings of Dehlinger with respect to the use of a “probe array” which is
more akin to that which Appellants disclose in the specification. We agree with the
Examiner that it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of the
invention to have implemented the methodology of Layne with various probes and their
corresponding experiments since this does not change the method, but only the range of
experiments that the method may be adapted to control. Here, we find that the Examiner
has established a prima facie case of obviousness for the combined teachings of Layne
and Dehlinger. Therefore, we look to Appellants’ briefs to identify an error in the
Examiner’s prima facie case.
Appellants argue that the
probe array experiments performed in accordance with the claimed embodiments
utilize a radically different technology that differs in significant ways from the
robotic microtiter technology of Layne et al. '731. One important difference
between these technologies, is the vastly increased data volumes data expected to
result from the probe array experiments conducted in accordance with the present
invention. For example, while Layne et al. '731 describe an experiment
comprising at most ninety-six (96) wells at a time, Dehlinger '320 describes
experiments in which data is simultaneously collected from large arrays
comprising thousands of probes (Br. 6).
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