Appeal No. 2001-2689
Application No. 09/215,021
No other claims are pending.
We reverse and remand this application back to the examiner
for further consideration.
Appellant’s invention pertains to a machine for forming
sheet metal into panels having combined wall and roof panels, at
least a portion of which are arched or curved. A copy of
original patent claim 1 and newly added reissue claim 12,
presented in side-by-side parsed format for ease of comparison,
is appended to this decision.
No references are relied upon in the final rejection.
The Examiner’s Rejection
Claims 12-21 and 28 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 251 as
being broadening reissue claims presented in a reissue
application filed more than two years after issuance of the
original patent.
By way of background, the examiner explains on page 2 of the
answer that
appellant obtained a patent on an apparatus with the
apparatus being defined in terms of means-plus-function
language. These claims are represented by claims 1-11
in this reissue application. Appellant has added
claims 12-21 and 28 to this reissue application
directed to the similar subject matter as claims 1-11,
only now reciting the subject matter in traditional
structural language. The issue presented . . . in this
case . . . revolves around whether means-plus-function
2
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