Ex Parte JOHNSON - Page 9




             Interference No. 104,313                                                                                         
             Sauer Inc. v. Kanzaki Kokyukoki Mfg. Co., Ltd.                                                                   

             diligence toward reduction to practice from a time just prior to February 3, 1988, to October,                   
             1988.                                                                                                            
                     In the fourth entry appearing in a chart beginning on page 25 of its brief, Sauer                        
             specifically accounts for its activities in the period from 11/26/87 to 02/28/88. Also within that               
             entry, Sauer admits that all the identified activities are directed to design concepts outside of the            
             scope of the count. Sauer further does not allege that such activities outside of the scope of the               
             count was somehow either required or necessary for constructing and/or testing an embodiment                     
             which is within the scope of the count. This gap, more than three weeks of which are within                      
             Sauer's critical period during which Sauer must have been reasonably diligent in reducing the                    
             invention to practice, renders unpersuasive Sauer's assertion that it had been reasonably diligent               
             in the critical period for reducing the invention of the count to practice.                                      
                     Sauer argues that during that initial gap, it was merely relying on agreements made with                 
             Kanzaki with regard to what it would work on subsequent to their technical meeting held from                     
             11/23/87 to 11/25/87. The argument is without merit. That the parties together decided to direct                 
             theirjoint efforts to something outside of the scope of the count does not provide an excuse for                 
             either party to not be diligent in reducing the invention of the count to practice. Either for                   
             technical or business reasons or a combination of the two, and whatever is its motivation, Sauer                 
             chose to pursue something outside of the scope of the count and has nothing to show for more                     
             than three weeks at the very beginning of the critical period for reducing to practice the invention             
             of the count. Moreover, Sauer does not allege and it has not been demonstrated that the so called                

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