Appeal No. 1996-2284
Application No. 08/228,889
examiner's final rejection of claims 1-5, all of the pending2
claims, under 35 U.S.C. § 103. We affirm-in-part.
The claims before us are the claims as reproduced in
Appendix I to the opening brief (hereinafter, brief). 3
Appendix II shows the claims as they would appear had the
examiner approved the entry of the proposed "Amendment after
Final Rejection" received by the PTO on January 17, 1995. 4
Appellants complain that the proposed amendment was refused
entry by the examiner "for failure to show why the proposed
amendment was not presented earlier, even though the Final
Rejection specified the examiner was using 'new grounds of
rejection'" (Brief at 2 n.1). The examiner's refusal to enter
a proposed amendment is a matter to be raised by petition for
2Paper No. 5. The examiner responded to the appellants'
brief with the "Examiner's Answer" mailed August 2, 1995
(Paper No. 12) (hereinafter, Answer) and responded to
appellants' reply brief with the "Examiner's Answer" mailed
November 21, 1995 (Paper No. 14) (hereinafter, Supplemental
Answer). Consequently, the "Supplemental Examiner's Answer"
mailed October 27, 1999 (Paper No. 21) following the board's
remand (Paper No. 18) is the second supplemental examiner's
answer, which is not referred to hereinafter.
3Paper No. 11.
4Paper No. 6.
2
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