Appeal No. 2002-0831
Application 08/250,286
We consider first the rejection of all the appealed
claims under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112. The
rejection states that it is based on the written description
requirement. The purpose of the written description requirement
is to ensure that the applicants convey with reasonable clarity
to those skilled in the art that they were in possession of the
invention as of the filing date of the application. For the
purposes of the written description requirement, the invention is
"whatever is now claimed." Vas-cath, Inc. v. Mahurkar, 935 F.2d
1555, 1564, 19 USPQ2d 1111, 1117 (Fed. Cir. 1991).
The examiner asserts that the switch settings of the
second memory element do not appear to correspond to a plurality
of appliance environments with the ability of the user to select
from these environments. The examiner also argues that neither
of the memories or the switch operation states that the settings
correspond to one of a plurality of appliance environments or
wherein the switch operation obtains different operating
characteristics constants for different appliance environments
[answer, pages 3-4].
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