Appeal No. 1998-0441 Application 08/713,089 the limitations of claim 7. See Ex parte Moelands, 3 USPQ2d 1474 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1987); Ex parte Porter, 25 USPQ2d 1144, 1147 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1992) ("While claim 6 could be construed as an independent claim, drafted in a short-hand format to avoid rewriting the particulars of the nozzle recited in claim 7, for fee calculation purposes the Office initially treats all claims that refer to another claim as a dependent claim. M.P.E.P. § 608.01(n) under the heading TREATMENT OF IMPROPER DEPENDENT CLAIMS."). The Examiner states that "[i]t was said in the specification background on pages 1-2, that the prior art included ring oscillators used this way [i.e., in a non-volatile memory device], which is therefore apparently the prior art relied on" (EA7). It is clear that the Examiner belatedly relies on the admitted prior art in the specification for the first time in the Examiner's Answer, although the Examiner's Answer states that it does not contain any new ground of rejection. Nevertheless, the admitted prior art does not disclose a constant voltage supply connected to constant current elements connected between series-connected inverter - 12 -Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007