Appeal No. 1998-2800 Page 5
Application No. 08/572,505
Appellants acknowledge at page 2, line 6 through page 3,
line 16 of the specification that a process corresponding to
the herein claimed process for forming a lead-frame material
is well-known with the notable exceptions that the admitted
prior art process uses a plate instead of a web of a copper or
copper alloy and performs the degreasing and acid cleaning
processing steps via a batch rather than continuous method.
Also, the formation of a matting layer as herein claimed is
not explicitly mentioned as being part of the admitted prior
art being relied upon by the examiner.
Fujikawa (abstract) discloses that the contact of an
image bearing film to a polyamide covered plate surface is
improved by forming an anti-stickiness layer that has a matted
surface on the photo-sensitive polyamide layer of the plate.
The examiner's basic position (answer, pages 4-7) implies
that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art to modify the process of Uesugi based on the teachings
of the admitted prior art and Fujikawa in a manner so as to
arrive at appellants' process. The difficulty we have with
the position of the examiner stems, at least in part, from the
fact that the examiner has not carried the burden of
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