Appeal No. 1998-1408 Page 15
Application No. 08/569,529
since solder extends to the surface of the board.”
(Examiner’s Answer at 4.) He adds, “Dirks has surface bonding
between conductors 4 and 5 and discusses through-hole
connections in col, [sic] 4, lines 50-52. Layton et al
surface bond the ends 30 of his strip conductors 22 to the
other ends of these strip conductors to form their coil.”
(Id. at 5.)
Representative claim 1 specifies in pertinent part the
following limitations: “a flex circuit comprising a flexible
dielectric sheet ... conductors of said flex circuit being
surface bonded to respective conductors of said printed
circuit board ....” In other words, the limitations recite
surface bonding the conductors of the flexible, dielectric
sheet to respective conductors of a PCB.
The appellants err in determining the content of the
prior art. As mentioned regarding the second argument, Layton
discloses the flexible, dielectric sheet with its elongated
conductors printed thereon. For its part, Sato discloses
surface bonding conductors of a flexible, dielectric sheet to
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