Appeal 2007-4101
Application 09/962,972
one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was
made to provide the fluid treatment system of Klabunde with
the cartridge housing of Wilkins, in order to facilitate handling
of the treatment material in this primary reference system. Also,
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time the invention was made to employ a membrane having
the recited pore diameter (claims 6 and 12) in the thus modified
primary reference system, in order to ensure that an appropriate
amount of fluid is allowed to pass through this membrane.
The Appellants rely on the same arguments and evidence discussed above to
rebut the Examiner’s rejection set forth above (Br. 14-15). Accordingly,
based on the Factual Findings set forth in the Answer and above, we also
determine that the preponderance of evidence weighs most heavily in favor
of obviousness of the subject matter defined by claims 1 through 9 and 12
through 14 within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 103.
As evidence of obviousness of the subject matter defined by claims 10
through 12 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a), the Examiner has relied on the
combined disclosure of Klabunde, Price, and Sylva. The disclosures of
Klabunde and Prices are discussed above. The Examiner has acknowledged
that they do not mention employing the claimed hydrophilic membrane
(Answer 4).
To remedy this deficiency, the Examiner has relied on Sylva to show
that filtering a liquid through hydrophilic membrane is well known (id. and
Sylvia, col. 2, ll. 7-16). According to the Examiner (Answer 4-5):
[I]t would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
at the time the invention was made to substitute the hydrophilic
membrane of Sylva for the filtering member (i.e. 7 or 11 of
Price) of the modified primary reference, since this hydrophilic
membrane is capable of filtering a liquid in substantially the
same manner as the filtering member of the modified
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