Examiner’s Speculative Interpretation of a Foreign Reference Lacking a Translation Insufficient to Support Obviousness Rejection

On April 3, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) issued a decision in Ex parte Wallero reversing an Examiner’s obviousness rejection because the Examiner failed to provide a sufficient factual basis to establish that a claimed feature was disclosed in the examples of a Japanese reference for which there was only an English abstract of record. No. 2019-004064 (P.T.A.B. Apr. 3, 2020) (non-precedential).