Appeal No. 1999-1894
Application 08/847,804
Appellants have submitted a declaration by co-inventor
Carl F. Weissner under 37 CFR § 1.132 (Paper No. 24). The
Examiner finds the declaration insufficient for several
reasons (EA6-7). We disagree with the Examiner and briefly
point out what we find persuasive about the declaration.
First, the ELT specification requires a radiation pattern
having an absolute gain in the vertical plane between -3 dBi
and +4 dBi over an elevation angle from about 10E to 60E
(para. 4), but Mr. Weissner states that "[n]othing in this
legislative requirement dictates the specific length of the
antenna elements in relation to its radiation frequency"
(para. 5). Thus, Appellants are not trying to claim a length2
The specification, as filed, stated (p. 4, lines 29-2
31): "The radiation efficiency and radiation pattern at
406 MHz required by legislation dictates an antenna slightly
shorter than one quarter wave length at 406 MHz" (emphasis
added). This implies that persons of ordinary skill in the
antenna art would have known that it was necessary to provide
an antenna slightly shorter than a quarter wavelength in order
to achieve the radiation efficiency and radiation pattern in
the legislation, which is specified in the claims; i.e., the
radiation efficiency and radiation pattern required by the
legislation necessarily imposes a certain length of less than
a quarter wavelength even though no specific dimension is
expressly stated in the legislation standard. If so, this
would provide the motivation to modify Fenwick. However, the
word "dictates" has been changed by amendment to be "is
obtained by," which does not carry the same meaning. We do
not question the amendment.
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