Appeal No. 97-2451 Page 10
Application No. 08/260,635
New ground of rejection
Under the provisions of 37 CFR § 1.196(b), we enter the
following new ground of rejection.5
Claims 1 to 8 and 13 to 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 112, second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to
particularly point out and distinctly claim the invention.
As set forth previously, our review of the specification
leads us to conclude that one of ordinary skill in the art would
not be able to understand the metes and bounds of the
terminologies "substantially below" and "rapidly remove" in
independent claim 1. Likewise, one of ordinary skill in the art
would not be able to understand the metes and bounds of the
terminology "substantially below" in independent claim 16.
Additionally, we conclude that one of ordinary skill in the art
would not be able to understand the metes and bounds of the
terminology "substantially higher" in dependent claim 13 since
537 CFR § 1.196(b)(amended effective Dec. 1, 1997, by final
rule notice, 62 Fed. Reg. 53131, 53197 (Oct. 10, 1997), 1203 Off.
Gaz. Pat. Office 63, 122 (Oct. 21, 1997)) permits the Board to
reject any pending claim including allowed and objected to
claims.
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