Appeal No. 1998-0049
Application 08/289,028
The Examiner relies on the following prior art:
Vandierendonck et al. 3,987,416 October 19,
1976
(Vandierendonck)
Itomitsu et al. (Itomitsu) 5,440,704 August 8,
1995
(effective filing date July 9,
1990)
Claims 61-63, 65-70, 72, 74-76, 81, and 88-93 stand
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Itomitsu and Vandierendonck.
We refer to the Final Rejection (Paper No. 7) (pages
referred to as "FR__") and the Examiner's Answer (Paper
No. 13) (pages referred to as "EA__") for a statement of the
Examiner's position, and to the Brief (Paper No. 12) (pages
referred to as "Br__") and the Reply Brief (Paper No. 14)
(pages referred to as "RBr__") for a statement of
Appellants' arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
Grouping of claims
Appellants state that the claims may be considered as
one group, i.e., as standing or falling together, but that
claims 63 and 88 are separately patentable (Br4).
Appellants separately argue claims 63 and 88 (Br6).
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