Court Opinion

ID: 9447478
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:36:09.454487+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:03.919598
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Judge
(concurring).
While I agree with the result in this case, I do not think this court should be compelled to support its opinion by drawing on standard reference works outside the record.
It seems to me that it is the primary responsibility of the examiner to support a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 by the citation of pertinent reference materials. The examiner is much closer to the person having the ordinary skills of the art than either the Board of Appeals or this court. From this vantage point, the examiner is in a better position than we are to supply the references and the technical data which would be available to the persons skilled in the art and upon which the examiner has concluded that the invention is “obvious.”
In addition, I do not think it is in the best interests of orderly appellate procedure for us to assume the responsibility of locating such materials with which to affirm the decisions below. Without the additional supporting material referred to in our opinion the record here is very deficient in factual material from which to draw support for the conclusion that the invention would be obvious to one having the ordinary skills in this art. Also, I think an applicant should have the opportunity to state his views concerning such material and the conclusions drawn therefrom. The practice we have indulged here to support our opinion deprives the applicant of this opportunity.
Much of the uncertainty in decisions such as the present could be eliminated if the record were to contain a discriminating citation by the examiner of any pertinent general reference materials which he has considered in arriving at his decision on the question of obviousness of the claimed invention to one skilled in the art.