Ex parte BLALOCK et al. - Page 13




         Appeal No. 2000-0721                                     Page 13          
         Reissue Application No. 08/628,287                                        


         the electrically conductive storage node, conductive material             
         60, located therein."  (Reply Br. at 14.)                                 


              Claims 13-40, 53-60, 66, and 67 each specifies in                    
         pertinent part the following limitations: "at least one                   
         contact opening ...; an electrically conductive storage ...."             


              The examiner fails to show that the limitations are                  
         indefinite.  "Even if ... claims are .. broader than they                 
         otherwise would be, breadth is not to be equated with                     
         indefiniteness, as we have said many times."  In re Miller,               
         441 F.2d 689, 693, 169 USPQ 597, 600 (CCPA 1971).                         


              Here, although the relationship between the claimed                  
         electrically conducting storage and the claims contact opening            
         may not be recited in claims 13-40, 53-60, 66, and 67, the                
         omission is a matter of breadth, not of indefiniteness.  The              
         specification discloses that "[e]lectrically conductive                   
         material 60 fills grooved striations 58 of capacitor contact              
         opening 54."  Col. 4, ll. 56-57.  When read in light of the               









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