Appeal No. 1997-4445
Application 08/305,076
period" as we have interpreted that term. Accordingly, the
anticipation rejection of claims 9-11, and claims 12-14 which
further depend therefrom, is reversed.
NEW GROUND OF REJECTION UNDER 37 CFR § 1.196(b)
Claims 6, 9, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
second paragraph, as misdescriptive. As discussed in the
"Claim interpretation" section, the limitation in claim 6
about "(iii) further to decrease the exciting current to zero
during a third exciting time period" (emphasis added) is
misdescriptive because the current in Figure 6 clearly
decreases to zero after the termination of the exciting
current enable signal during a time period which is not an
exciting time period. Also, the limitation in claim 6 about
controlling the exciting current supply circuit "when the
exciting current supplied to said stepping motor is cut off at
a termination of an enable excitation time interval beginning
from application of said step signal" is misdescriptive
because the term "when" indicates the three exciting time
periods of limitations (i)-(iii) take place after the
termination of the enable excitation time interval, whereas
the first two time periods of (i) and (ii) take place before
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