Appeal No. 1997-3668
Application 08/395,228
geometry would result in inside corner overlap in Murakami’s
Figure 10 resistors R1, R2. (Answer-page 4.)
In the reply brief and the supplemental answer,
Appellants and the Examiner amplify their respective positions
of Burger’s functional overlap, or alternatively, the
resulting overlap derived from Burger’s geometric layout.
However, we agree with Appellants on both points. A
functional overlap does not meet the structural language
recited in the claims, nor would a functional overlap make a
structural overlap obvious as
proffered by the Examiner in the supplemental answer. We find
this reasoning to clearly be a hindsight reconstruction, by
combining references to obtain a particular geometric shape,
and further, not employing resistive material in the inside
corner of Burger because the extra resistive material would be
wasted and serve no functional utility (as explained by the
Examiner).
Both Appellants and the Examiner have assumed that
overlap in Appellants’ claims means overlap as disclosed in
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