Appeal No. 1999-1480 Application No. 08/523,330 Claims 68 and 69 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. � 103(a) as being unpatentable over McRae in view of Linsalato as applied to claim 63, and further in view of Schmalz. Rather than attempt to reiterate the examiner’s full commentary with regard to the above-noted rejections and the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and appellant regarding the rejections, we make reference to the final rejection (Paper No. 26, mailed June 9, 1998) and the examiner’s answer (Paper No. 29, mailed December 22, 1998) for the reasoning in support of the rejections, and to appellant’s brief (Paper No. 28, mailed October 9, 1998) for the arguments thereagainst. OPINION As a preliminary matter, we note that on page 7 of the appeal brief appellant “solicits the independent consideration of the independent claim in each group (Claim 52, Claim 57, Claim 63), and additionally of Claims 65 and 66.” Accordingly, we specifically address in our discussions below, 6Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007