Appeal No. 2000-0038
Application 08/751,369
is a synthetic resin film (col. 4, lines 58-59). In one
preferred embodiment at least one intermediate layer is applied
to the substrate (col. 7, lines 3-6). The intermediate layer can
be applied by any method which is suitable for yielding a compact
layer devoid of column structures, and preferably is applied by a
vacuum coating process (col. 8, lines 44-47; col. 12, lines 51-
59). A waveguide layer is applied to the intermediate layer by
known coating methods, the exemplified methods including ion-
enhanced PVD (col. 6, lines 12-22). It is undisputed that ion-
enhanced PVD methods include reactive DC sputtering.
The appellants argue that Heming does not specifically
disclose forming the waveguide layer by reactive sputtering and
would not clearly have taught one of ordinary skill in the art
which method to use to deposit a waveguide layer onto an organic
substrate material (brief, pages 9-10; reply brief, pages 2-3).
Although Heming does not specifically disclose reactive
sputtering, the disclosed ion-enhanced PVD includes ion-enhanced
sputtering, and the appellants state that ion sputtering is a
form of reactive sputtering (brief, page 11). Moreover, the
appellants acknowledge that reactive DC sputtering was a well
known deposition process at the time of the appellants’ invention
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