Appeal No. 1998-2329
Application No. 08/740,402
radiation mask fabrication where depositing an oxynitride as a
hard mask layer has been found to produce stresses low enough to
come within the range specified in the claims (Brief, page 4).
A copy of illustrative claim 1 is attached as an Appendix to
this decision.
The examiner has relied upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Tabuchi 4,440,841 Apr. 3, 1984
Bohlen et al. (Bohlen) 4,448,865 May 15, 1984
Leedy 5,580,687 Dec. 3, 1996
(filed June 7, 1995)
Claims 1 through 5 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
first paragraph, as failing to meet the written description
requirement (Answer, page 4). Claims 1-9 and 19 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Bohlen or Tabuchi
in view of Leedy (Answer, pages 5-13). We reverse all of the 1
examiner’s rejections for reasons stated below.
OPINION
1For judicial economy, we have combined the examiner’s
rejections since they involve the same references and issues.
In fact, the examiner had only made two rejections under
section 103(a) in the Final Rejection (Paper No. , pages 3 and
5) but expanded these rejections into six rejections in the
Answer.
2
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