Appeal No. 96-2302
Application 08/260,058
as being indefinite. The word "preferably", in the context in
which it is used in the claims, infers that the limitation set
forth in the claim may or may not be a positively recited part of
the claimed frame structure. As such, the scope and content of
this dependent claim is indeterminate, i.e., the metes and bounds
of the claimed invention cannot be fairly determined. We remand
this application to the examiner for consideration of this
matter.
Pursuant to the provisions of 37 CFR § 1.196(d), the
application is remanded to the Primary Examiner for consideration
of the above ground of rejection of allowed claim 11. A period
of two months is set in which the appellant may submit to the
Primary Examiner an appropriate amendment, or a showing of facts
or reasons, or both, in order to avoid the ground of rejection of
the identified allowed claim.
Upon conclusion of the proceedings before the Primary
Examiner on remand, this case should be returned to the Board by
the Primary Examiner so that the Board may either adopt its
decision as final or render a new decision on all of the claims
on appeal as it may deem appropriate. Such return is unnecessary
if the application is abandoned as the result of an unanswered
Office action, allowed or again appealed.
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