Appeal 2007-0844
Application 10/790,473
Gallant US 2002/0167946 A1 Nov. 14, 2002
REJECTIONS
Claims 1-24 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Gallant.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the
Examiner and the Appellant regarding the above-noted rejection, we make
reference to the Examiner's Answer (mailed Jul. 14, 2006) for the reasoning
in support of the rejections, and to Appellant’s Brief (filed Mar. 27, 2006)
and Reply Brief (filed Aug. 18, 2006) for the arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful
consideration to Appellant’s Specification and claims, to the applied prior art
references, and to the respective positions articulated by Appellant and the
Examiner. As a consequence of our review, we make the determinations
that follow.
35 U.S.C. § 103
At the outset, we note that to reach a proper conclusion under § 103, the
Examiner, as finder of fact, must step backward in time and into the mind of
a person of ordinary skill in the art at a time when the invention was
unknown, and just before it was made. In light of all the evidence, we
review the specific factual determinations of the Examiner to ascertain
whether the Examiner has convincingly established that the claimed
invention as a whole would have been obvious at the time of the invention to
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