Appeal No. 1998-0819
Application 08/541,656
At the outset, we note the Appellants’ statement on page
4 of the brief that claims 2 through 8, 14 and 17 are to be
considered as a single group, group I, and claims 9, 15 and 16
are to be considered as a single group, group II ,. We note
that Appellants argue the claims based upon these above
groupings in the brief. 37 CFR § 1.192 (c)(7) (July 1, 1996)
as amended at 60 Fed. Reg. 14518 (March 17, 1995), which was
controlling at the time of Appellants’ filing the brief,
states:
For each ground of rejection which appellant contests and
which applies to a group of two or more claims, the Board
shall select a single claim from the group and shall
decide the appeal as to the ground of rejection on the
basis of that claim alone unless a statement is included
that the claims of the group do not stand or fall
together and, in the argument under paragraph (c)(8) of
this section, appellants explain why the claims of the
group are believed to be separately patentable. Merely
pointing out differences in what the claims cover is not
an argument as to why the claims are separately
patentable.
We will, thereby, consider the Appellants’ claims 2 through 8,
14 and 17, group I, as standing or falling together and we
will treat claim 2 as a representative claim of that group.
In addition, we will consider the Appellants’ claims 9, 15 and
16, group II, as standing or falling together and we will
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