Appeal No. 97-2168
Application No. 08/382,120
1995). In response, appellants amended the claims so
that “’heteroaryl’ [has] been clarified using the
recitations found at . . . page 4, lines 28+”
(appellants’ Response filed December 1, 1995, p. 4).
However, the phrase that was inserted in the claims -
“mono- or bicyclic aromatic groups having five or six
atoms in each ring” – is not the full recitation found in
the specification. It is missing the important
additional criterion “and having at least one ring
heteroatom selected from nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen”
(page 4, lines 28-32). Without this limitation, the
claims do not distinctly claim the subject matter which
appellants regard as their invention. We are not
persuaded that the recitation, in its currently shortened
form, further describes the claimed term “aryl”, as
appellants appear to suggest (brief, p. 7 ). The term2
2“The ‘open-ended’ nature of groups is unclear. At page 4,
lines 17-19, appellants state that ‘[a]ryl’ means a mono-
or bicyclic aromatic carbocyclic group. Since ‘carbocyclic’
refers to moieties containing only carbon and hydrogen, the
term ‘aromatic groups’ – if read in light of the
8
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