Ex parte CHADIMA et al. - Page 4




          Appeal No. 1997-3481                                                        
          Application 08/476,543                                                      

          point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which                     
          applicant regards as his invention.                                         
               Claims 15-26 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as                   
          being unpatentable over Dobras, McWaters, Sakai, Swartz '798,               
          Chadima, and Knowles.                                                       
               We refer to the first Office action (Paper No. 3), the                 
          Final Rejection (Paper No. 7), the Examiner's Answer (Paper                 
          No. 10) (pages referred to as "EA__"), and the Supplemental                 
          Examiner's Answer (Paper No. 12) (pages referred to as                      
          "SEA__") for a statement of the Examiner's position and to the              
          Brief (Paper No. 9) (pages referred to as "Br__") and the                   
          Reply Brief (Paper No. 11) (pages referred to as "RBr__") for               
          Appellants' arguments thereagainst.                                         
                                       OPINION                                        
          35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph                                            
               As a procedural matter, as discussed by Appellants in                  
          their Reply Brief, the Examiner did not repeat the § 112                    
          enablement rejection from the first Office action in the Final              
          Rejection.  Under Patent and Trademark Office rules,                        
          Appellants could consider the rejection withdrawn since they                
          were not repeated.  See 37 CFR § 1.113(b) (1995).  The                      

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