Appeal No. 2000-0708
Application No. 08/873,973
a substrate which has a first outer conductive plane on a
top surface of said substrate; and
a solder mask that covers said first outer conductive plane
and which has a plurality of openings that expose a plurality of
contact pad areas of said first outer conductive plane.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Lin et al. (Lin) 5,216,278 Jun. 01, 1993
Frankeny et al. (Frankeny) 5,691,041 Nov. 25, 1997
(filed Sep. 29, 1995)
Claims 1 through 18 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Frankeny in view of Lin.
Reference is made to the Examiner's Answer (Paper No. 18,
mailed August 26, 1999) for the examiner's complete reasoning in
support of the rejection, and to appellant's Brief (Paper No. 17,
filed June 4, 1999) for appellant's arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
We have carefully considered the claims, the applied prior
art references, and the respective positions articulated by
appellant and the examiner. As a consequence of our review, we
will reverse the obviousness rejection of claims 1 through 18.
Each of independent claims 1, 9, and 17 recites "a first
outer conductive plane" on a top surface of the substrate of the
printed circuit board. Appellant's sole argument regarding
claims 1, 9, 17, and dependent claims 3 through 7, 11, 13, and 18
(Brief, pages 7-8) is that Frankeny, Lin, and the combination
2
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