Appeal No. 1998-1669
Application No. 08/508,563
invention allegedly solves the problem of increasing
resistivity in the direction of film thickness.
(Specification, pages 3-10.)
The examiner relies upon the following prior art
references as evidence of unpatentability:
Mueller 4,842,705 Jun. 27,
1989
Nakamura 4,936,964 Jun. 26,
1990
Ohno et al. (Ohno) 4,975,168 Dec. 04,
1990
Tsuda (JP ‘746) 1 7-51746 (2-47255) Feb. 16, 1990
(published JP patent document)
Claims 1 through 13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as unpatentable over “either Mueller or Japanese patent 7-
51746 in view of either Nakamura or Ohno et al.” (Examiner’s
answer, pages 3 through 7.)
Upon review of the entire record, we determine that one
skilled in the relevant art would not be able to ascertain the
scope of appealed claim 1 because no reasonably definite
meaning can be ascribed to certain language appearing in the
1In our decision, we refer to the English language
translation of JP ‘746 as submitted by the appellant on July
28, 1995. (Paper 3.)
3
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