Appeal No. 96-0767
Application 08/136,439
Appellants made no statement that the claims do not stand or
fall together. 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7). Accordingly, we will limit
our consideration to claim 7.
Claim 7 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph, as indefinite. Claims 7-11 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over Scriven. We have carefully
considered the entire record, including the appellants' position
as set forth in their briefs and the examiner's position as set
forth in the answer, and we have decided that we will not sustain
the rejections.
Claim 7 is rejected as indefinite by the examiner because
the claim does not indicate whether the claimed "average
molecular weight range" of 5000 to 50,000 for the oligourethane
is a "number average, weight average, viscosity average, z
average, etc." As noted by appellants, claims are not indefinite
if they "set out and circumscribe a particular area with a
reasonable degree of precision and particularity" and the
definiteness of the language "must be analyzed—not in a vacuum,
but always in the light of the teachings of the prior art and of
the particular application disclosure as it would be interpreted
by one possessing the ordinary level of skill in the pertinent
art." In re Moore, 439 F.2d 1232, 1235, 169 USPQ 236, 238 (CCPA
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