Appeal No. 2001-0018
Application 08/998,559
Appellants respond that the printed wiring board 6 of
Kawabe is truly L-shaped and includes an edge portion [reply
brief].
Based on the record before us, we do not sustain the
examiner’s rejection of claims 6-12. The examiner acknowledges
that the circuit board in Kawabe is L-shaped as argued by
appellants. Since Kawabe desires to minimize reflection, the
examiner proposes to minimize the L-portion of the circuit board
to the point where the circuit board becomes planar as claimed.
The examiner does not address the question of why Kawabe teaches
the minimization of reflection, yet Kawabe still requires that a
portion of the circuit board be folded into an L-shape. Kawabe
uses this L-shape portion of the circuit board to bond the
circuit board to the piezoelectric array. The examiner does not
indicate how Kawabe would bond a planar circuit board. Since
Kawabe was aware of the reflection problem but still chose to use
an L-shaped circuit board, the only suggestion for using a planar
circuit board as claimed comes from appellants’ own disclosure.
We also note that an L-shaped circuit board does not meet
the claim recitation of a planar circuit board as argued by the
examiner. While a portion of an L-shaped circuit board may be
planar as asserted by the examiner, the claim requires a “planar
-7-
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