Appeal No. 2005-0289 Page 5
Application No. 09/491,841
Appellant asserts (brief, pages 11 and 12) that in the
elected embodiment of figures 5 and 6, "the contact element is
imbedded into the base structure for purposes of attachment."
The examiner responds (answer, page 4) that appellant refers
to the figures of the elected species and other embodiments, but
does not address the description of the device in the
specification. The examiner asks (answer, page 5) "[h]ow can a
part of device also be attached to the same device."
Appellant responds (reply brief, page 2) that the examiner
fails to consider the written description as a whole because as
shown in figures 1 and 2 and as described on page 18 of the
specification, the contact element is embedded into the base
structure.
From our review of the elected species of figures 5 and 6
and the accompanying portions of the specification (which differs
from the first embodiment by the substitution of a blade shaped
contact protrusion) we find that base structure 4 comprises band-
shaped metal contact element 10 and comprises part 22 made from
an elastic material. As is clear from figure 2, contact element
10 is attached to and in some areas, embedded into, elastic part
22. With this interpretation of the specification in mind, we
turn to the language of claim 1 that is argued by the examiner to
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