Appeal No. 94-4081
Application 07/750,031
application involves a setting up of an electric potential” (main
brief, page 8) and claim 42 specifically calls for separation
“based on differential interaction” (emphasis appellants’, main
brief, page 30). Appellants state that “differential
interaction” pertains to the electric potential set up in the
plates or surface (main brief, page 30). Finally, appellants
emphatically state that the claimed invention utilizes an
electric potential between portions of the plate or surfaces
(main brief, page 39).
Appellants are correct in noting that the method of claim 42
calls for separation of the charged components of a mixture by
differential interaction through the medium. However, there is
no basis for appellants’ contention that an electric potential is
a limitation of the claimed method. The claims now on appeal do
not call for any limitation regarding an electric potential. The
term “differential interaction” is characterized in claim 42 as
“where like-charged flourophore [sic, fluorophore] components are
displaced by like-charged mixture components” (see claim 42,
lines 12-13, and also the main brief, page 14). Ma discloses
this same separation concept of “differential interaction”,
although using different terminology, at page 723, right column:
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007