Appeal No. 95-5074
Application No. 08/186,900
and 64 are switched on, both the inlet and outlet temperatures
are raised but the outlet temperature remains greater than the
inlet temperature.
Also, like appellants, we cannot understand how the
examiner allowed claim 1 but rejects claim 2 which recites
features in addition to those recited in claim 1.
We now turn to the examiner's § 102 rejection of claim 5
over U.K. '897. Claim 5 defines a gas chromatographic method
comprising a packed column "provided with a variable elution
temperature profile decreasing along the column length from
the inlet to the outlet of the column" (emphasis added). We
agree with the examiner that U.K. '897 discloses a separation
column in which the temperature gradient decreases in the
direction of the fluid flow through the column. However, as
urged by appellants, appealed claim 5 requires more than that,
i.e., the decreasing temperature profile must be variable (see
page 6 of present specification and Figure 3 for a description
of how appellants effect a variable, decreasing temperature
profile). The examiner has pointed to no disclosure in U.K.
'897 of a variable temperature profile, and our review of the
reference fails to reveal any such disclosure. Accordingly,
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