Appeal No. 95-2138 Application 07/852,078 (CCPA 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 935 (1974); In re Brown, 477 F.2d 946, 950, 177 USPQ 691, 694 (CCPA 1973); and In re Ghiron, 442 F.2d 985, 992,169 USPQ 723, 728 (CCPA 1971). However, the burden was initially upon the Examiner to establish a reasonable basis for questioning the adequacy of the disclosure. In re Strahilevitz, 668 F.2d 1229, 1232, 212 USPQ 561, 563-64 (CCPA 1982); In re Angstadt, 537 F.2d 498, 501-02, 190 USPQ 214, 217-18 (CCPA 1976); and In re Armbruster, 512 F.2d 676, 677-78, 185 USPQ 152, 153 (CCPA 1975). In claims 1 through 3 and 10 through 15, Appellants claim a ferroelectric thin film structure comprising a substrate and a modulated PZT and PT heterostructure ferroelectric thin film formed on the substrate. Thus, the claims are directed to a composition of matter. Furthermore, the utility of ferroelectric thin films has been known in electronics before Appellants= filing date and has been in use prior to Appellants= invention as evidenced by Appellants= statements found on pages 1-3 of the specification as well as prior art cited by the Examiner. In particular, Swartz shows in Table 1 on page 2 that ferroelectric thin films have been used in nonvolatile memory and transducer devices. Therefore, we find that the utility of ferroelectric thin film structures was known in the art before the filing of 6Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007