Appeal No. 2001-0238
Application No. 08/859,020
B. Priority Claim
The appellants have claimed priority to application serial
no. 08/584,522 (now US Patent 5,720,894) in a new declaration,
filed March 9, 1999 (see paper #8). The appellants assert that
support for the claimed subject matter is found within the
disclosure of that application and therefore Pronko is not
available as prior art as they are able to swear behind Pronko.
(Appeal Brief, page 9, line 17 – page 11, line 14).
The examiner states that nowhere in 5,720,894 is found a
disclosure of a method or apparatus for machining metal or alloys
nor support for removal of amounts of approximately greater than
0.1 micron to 1 micron. (Examiner’s Answer, page 3, lines 16-20).
We have carefully reviewed the as-filed specification of
application serial no. 08/584,522. At page 11, lines 7 – 19 the
following passage is found:
The description of the operation of the laser system with
respect to dental applications is for exemplary purposes
only and is not intended to limit the application of the
laser of the present invention. As will be described in
greater detail below, the laser system of the present
invention has application to a wide variety of biological
tissue removal processes as well as exceptional utility for
general material removal and micro-machining. Those having
skill in the art will immediately recognize the utility and
applicability of the laser system’s novel operational regime
to laser-tissue interactions in the general sense.
At page 31, lines 4-16, the following passage is found:
Although the ultrashort pulse duration high repetition rate
laser system of the present invention has been described in
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