Appeal No. 2002-0220 Page 8
Application No. 08/964,496
in the art would not be able to determine with any certainty the metes and bounds of
claim 17. Claims 18-20 depend from claim 17 and are likewise indefinite.
CONCLUSION
To summarize, the decision of the examiner to reject claims 1-4, 6, 7, 9-12, 14,
15 and 17-20 is reversed and a new rejection of claims 17-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
second paragraph, is entered pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b).
This decision contains a new ground of rejection pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b),
which provides that, "A new ground of rejection shall not be considered final for
purposes of judicial review."
37 CFR § 1.196(b) also provides that the appellant, WITHIN TWO MONTHS
FROM THE DATE OF THE DECISION, must exercise one of the following two options
with respect to the new ground of rejection to avoid termination of proceedings
(§ 1.197(c)) as to the rejected claims:
(1) Submit an appropriate amendment of the claims so rejected or
a showing of facts relating to the claims so rejected, or both, and have the
matter reconsidered by the examiner, in which event the application will
be remanded to the examiner. . . .
(2) Request that the application be reheard under § 1.197(b) by the
Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences upon the same record. . . .
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