Appeal No. 1998-2924 Application NO. 08/276,290 Appellants' Brief1 and Examiner's Answer2 for the respective details thereof. OPINION With full consideration being given the subject matter on appeal, the Examiner's rejection and the arguments of Appellants and Examiner, for the reasons stated infra, we will affirm the Examiner's rejection of claims 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 24, 25 and 28 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Appellants' admitted prior art, Tanabe and Sagara. We will reverse the Examiner's rejection of claims 5, 6, 9, 10, 12-23, 26, 27, 29, 31 and 32. Before consideration of Appellants' substantive arguments, we first address procedural matters related to Appellants' claim grouping. Initially, on page 28 of the 1 Appellants filed an Appeal Brief ("Brief") on December 29, 1997. 2 The Examiner, in response to Appellants' Brief, filed an Examiner's Answer on March 17, 1998. 5Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007