Appeal No. 1997-4345
Application No. 08/292,670
that the stable free radical groups encompassed thereby must
possess this characteristic. In re Sneed, 710 F.2d 1544,
1548, 218 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1983).
Particularly as so interpreted, the appealed claims
cannot be regarded as anticipated by or obvious over the
applied prior art as correctly argued by the appellants. This
is because neither Tong nor Georges contains any teaching or
suggestion that the groups located at the ends of the polymer
chains disclosed in these references are thermally labile,
reversibly attachable, covalently bonded stable free radical
groups of the type under consideration. Moreover, the
crosslinking scheme disclosed by Tong with respect to his
polymer chain militates against the examiner’s position that
patentee’s end groups correspond to those required by the
appealed claims.
It appears to be the examiner’s view (e.g., see the
supplemental examiner’s answer mailed June 28, 1996) that the
appellants should be required to submit evidence which shows
that the here claimed polymers are indeed different from those
of Tong or Georges as argued in their briefs. As previously
explained, however, it is the examiner’s initial burden of
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007