Appeal No. 2002-0998
Application 09/296,139
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given
careful consideration to appellants’ specification and claims2,
to the applied prior art references, and to the respective
positions articulated by appellants and the examiner. As a
consequence of our review, we have made the determinations which
follow.
Looking at page 4 of the brief, we note that appellants have
indicated that claims 1 through 3, 5 through 14, 16 and 17 “stand
or fall together.” Thus, we focus our discussion below on
independent claims 1 and 9, and consider that the remaining
claims before us on appeal will stand or fall with their
respective independent claim.
In his rejection of independent claims 1 and 9 the examiner
2 Claims 16 and 17 depend directly or indirectly from
canceled claim 15. During any further prosecution of the
application, both the examiner and appellants would be well
served to address this problem, which has existed since the
amendment filed May 19, 2000 directed cancellation of claim 15.
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007