Appeal No. 1999-0865 Application No. 08/468,573 In addition to affirming the examiner’s rejection of one or more claims, this decision contains a new ground of rejection pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b). 37 CFR § 1.196(b) provides that “[a] new ground of rejection shall not be considered final for purposes of judicial review.” Regarding any affirmed rejection, 37 CFR § 1.197(b) provides: (b) Appellants may file a single request for rehearing within two months from the date of the original decision . . . . 37 CFR § 1.196(b) also provides that the appellants, 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 (37 CFR § 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 . . . . Should the appellants elect to prosecute further before the Primary Examiner pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b)(1), in order to 14Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007