Appeal No. 96-2808
Application 08/102,708
able to determine and identify such source streams with respect to claim 26. For the foregoing reasons,
the rejection of claim 26 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph is reversed.
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the examiner’s rejection of claims 21-26, 29, 30, and 38 under 35
U.S.C. § 103 is reversed as is the rejection of claim 26 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph. The
rejection of claims 31 and 39 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is affirmed, but our affirmance is denominated as a
new ground of rejection. Accordingly the decision of the examiner is affirmed-in-part.
This decision contains a new ground of rejection pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b) (amended
effective December 1, 1997, by final rule notice, 62 Fed. Reg. 53,131, 53,197 (October 10, 1997),
1203 Off. Gaz. Pat. & Trademark Office 63, 122 (Oct. 21, 1997)). 37 CFR § 1.196(b) provides that
“[a] new ground of rejection shall not be considered final for purposes of judicial review.”
37 CFR § 1.196(b) also provides that the appellants, WITHIN TWO MONTHS FROM THE
DATE OF THE DECISION, must exercise one of the following two options with respect to the new
ground of rejection to avoid termination of proceedings (37 CFR § 1.197(c)) as to the rejected claims:
(1) Submit an appropriate amendment of the claims so rejected or a showing of facts
relating to the claims so rejected, or both, and have the matter reconsidered by the
examiner, in which event the application will be remanded to the examiner. . . .
(2) Request that the application be reheard under § 1.197(b) by the Board of Patent
Appeals and Interferences upon the same record. . . .
No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may
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