Ex parte WONG - Page 7




          Appeal No. 1998-0338                                                        
          Application No. 08/350,865                                                  


               Appellant is not permitted to engage "in a post hoc                    
          attempt to redefine the claimed invention by impermissibly                  
          incorporating language appearing in the specification into the              
          claims."  In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d 1475, 1480, 31 USPQ2d 1671,                
          1674 (Fed. Cir. 1994).  Claim 14 refines the “stress                        
          transferring” means to be                                                   
          “a volume of oxide, . . . contacting a planar upper surface of              
          said foundation layer.”  To read the limitations of claim 14                
          into claim 12 would make claim 14 redundant with claim 12.                  
          The claim 12 language is broader than claim 14 and only                     
          requires the “stress transferring” means to be “directly under              
          said [upper] conductive plate, . . . [and] disposed between                 
          said conductive plugs.”  This is clearly shown in APA, and                  
          requires no holes in the lower conductive plate.  Appellant’s               
          specification supports this analysis wherein it states “In                  
          some embodiments, there are no openings in the first [lower]                
          plate but rather a relatively wide elongated volume of oxide                
          between the first plate and the second plate transfers stress               
          without cracking and prevents the oxide mesh from cracking.”                




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