Appeal No. 1999-0382
Application 08/436,133
(effective filing date September 7, 1990)
Nagamine et al. (Nagamine) 5,319,246 June 7, 1994
(effective filing date September 7, 1990)
Claims 1-4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Koyama.
Claims 6 and 7 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Koyama further in view of the APA.
Claims 8-18 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over the APA and Nagamine.
We refer to the final rejection (Paper No. 7) (pages
referred to as "FR__") and the examiner's answer (Paper No. 15)
(pages referred to as "EA__") for a statement of the Examiner's
position, and to the brief (Paper No. 14) (pages referred to as
"Br__") and the reply brief (Paper No. 16) (pages referred to as
"RBr__") for a statement of Appellant's arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
Grouping of claims
Appellant groups the claims as follows (Br5):
Group A: claims 1-4, 6, 7, and 16-18 stand or fall together
with independent claim 1; and
Group B: claims 8-18 stand or fall together with independent
claim 8.
The Examiner disagrees with the grouping "because there is
an overlap in the two desired groups" (EA3). In particular, it
can be seen that claims 16-18 overlap between groups.
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