Appeal No. 1998-1623
Application 08/433,625
Claims 21, 22, 31, 32 and 34 through 37 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph. The Examiner argues
that the term “dissociate” is defined by the Appellants as a
process by which the chemical composition breaks up into
simpler constituents. The Examiner argues that Appellants'
invention does not break up into simpler constituents.
In the reply brief, Appellants agree that the definition
of dissociate is “to subject to a process by which a chemical
composition breaks into simpler constituents.” Appellants
argue that this is indeed exactly what happens in the instant
application. Appellants point to Figure 1 where it can be
seen that eutectic at 84.4 percent lead and 15.6 percent gold
is comprised of the intermetallic compound AuPb as one
2
component and elemental lead as the second component. This
indeed is a gold/lead eutectic, with one component being lead
and the other component being PbAu . Appellants point out
2
that the AuPb dissociates into its constituents of gold and
2
lead which provides for the gold to diffuse.
Upon our determination of whether the claims set out and
circumscribe the particular area with a reasonable degree of
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