Appeal No. 1998-2918
Application No. 08/508,874
The examiner relies on the following references:
Namura 5-152427 Jun. 18, 1993
(Japanese published patent application)1
Stanley Wolf (Wolf), A Review of IC Isolation Technologies -- Part 6, Solid State
Technology, Dec. 1992, pp. 39-41.
Claims 1-16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Namura and Wolf.
Claims 17-20 have been withdrawn from consideration.
We refer to the Final Rejection (Paper No. 5) and the Examiner's Answer (Paper
No. 11) for a statement of the examiner's position and to the Brief (Paper No. 10) and
the Reply Brief (Paper No. 12) for appellants' position with respect to the claims which
stand rejected.
OPINION
Section 103 rejection
The section 103 rejection of Claims 1-16 is set forth on pages 5-7 of the Answer.
However, we must reverse, pro forma, the examiner’s rejection of the claims, because
we consider the scope of the claims to be indefinite. If certain claim language is not
understood, then any attempt to apply art against that claim can only be based on
speculation. Rejections of claims over prior art should not be based on speculation as
1 The USPTO Translation Branch has provided an English translation, a copy of which should mail
with this decision.
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