Appeal 2007-2047
Application 10/335,187
epoxy resins, polyimide epoxies, bismaleimide epoxies and any
combination thereof;
partially curing the upper and lower A-stage resin layers to
produce upper and lower partially cured thermoset resin layers;
imprinting a pattern into the upper and lower partially cured
thermoset resin layer to produce an imprinted substrate;
completely curing the imprinted susbstrate to produce upper
and lower fully cured resin layers, each having an exposed surface;
chemically roughening each exposed surface;
applying a seed layer to each chemically roughened exposed
surface; and
plating each chemically roughened exposed surface to produce
plated surfaces.
The appeal is not ripe for review as a result of several inconsistencies
and other deficiencies in the Examiner’s Answer mailed November 22,
2006. In particular, we note that the Examiner’s Answer includes, inter alia,
a rejection of appealed claims 1-3, 7, 8, 10-12, 14-18, 19-21 and 31-37 over
Carey (U.S. Patent No. 5,091,339) in view of Lauffer (U.S. Patent No.
6,156,221) (Answer 3). However, the Examiner further discusses a
combination of Carey, Morita (U.S. Patent No. 6,156,870), and Shimoto
(U.S. Patent No. 5,830,563) with respect to appealed claims 14-18 and 21, as
if the latter combination of references was being applied in rejecting claims
14-18 and 21 (Answer 5) under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) albeit no such rejection
appears in the Answer or the Final Rejection.
This inconsistency in the Examiner’s discussion and identification of
the references being relied upon in rejecting at least some of the appealed
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