Appeal No. 95-3674
Application 08/122,981
Appellants argue that "Yokotani el al. does not disclose a
nanoporous semiconductor material, so that everywhere in
Applicant's claims where there is claimed a nanoporous
semiconductor material, Applicant has clearly defined over the
prior art of record" (Brief, page 5). Thus, the question is
whether Yokotani discloses a nanoporous semiconductor material.
The specification states (page 5): "Nanostructured
materials include building blocks on the order of nanometers
(10 meters) or tens of nanometers." This definition of-9
"nanostructured" material is confirmed by the article,
incorporatd by reference in the specification, by Ron Dagani,
Nanostructured Materials Promise To Advance Range of
Technologies, Chemical and Engineering News, 23 November 1992,
pages 18-24, at page 18:
Nanostructured (or nanophase) materials are called
that because the size of their building blocks is on the
order of nanometers (10 meter) or tens of nanometers.-9
Generally speaking, any material that contains grains or
particles 1 to 100 nm across, or layers or filaments of
that thickness, can be considered a nanostructured
material.
However, the claims recite a "nanoporous" material, not a
"nanostructured" material. We do not find the term
"nanoporous" defined in the specification except indirectly by
the process of fabrication in figure 1 wherein fine particles,
- 6 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007