Ex parte NOONE et al. - Page 4




          Appeal No. 1995-1703                                                        
          Application 07/897,304                                                      


               The first rejection rests on the examiner’s determination              
          (see page 5 in the main answer) that the appellants’                        
          specification fails to comply with the written description                  
          requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, with respect               
          to the recitation in claim 21 that the outer tubing layer has               
          a “maximum destructive elongation value” of at least 150%.                  
          The appellants counter that “elongation value is commonly                   
          referred to as elongation value at break and that one skilled               
          in the art would understand this from the specification taken               
          in its entirety” (main brief, page 20).                                     


               The test for determining compliance with the written                   
          description requirement is whether the disclosure of the                    
          application as originally filed reasonably conveys to the                   
          artisan that the inventor had possession at that time of the                
          later claimed subject matter, rather than the presence or                   
          absence of literal support in the specification for the claim               
          language.                                                                   
          In re Kaslow, 707 F.2d 1366, 1375, 217 USPQ 1089, 1096 (Fed.                
          Cir. 1983).                                                                 


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