Appeal No. 1997-3690
Application 08/427,163
the remaining claims on appeal for the reasons set forth
infra.
At the outset, we note that Appellants state on page 5 of
the Brief that claims 1 through 3, 5 and 9 are grouped
together. We note that Appellants argue all of the claims as
a single group in the Brief, however in the Reply Brief
Appellants separately argue claim 2. 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,
Appellant explains why the claims of the group are
believed to be separately patentable. Merely
pointing our 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 1 through 3,
5 and 9 as standing or falling together and we will treat
claim 1 as a representative claim of that group. Furthermore,
-4-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007