Ex Parte GRABLE et al - Page 2




          Appeal No. 2003-0303                                                        
          Application 09/096,521                                                      


          which are all of the claims remaining in this application.                  
          Claims 15 and 20 through 29 have been canceled.                             


                    Appellants’ invention relates to phantoms for use                 
          in optical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quality                     
          control.  The specification (page 1) informs us that a                      
          phantom is a test object that simulates some aspect of the                  
          anatomy of interest.  An objective of appellants’ invention                 
          is to provide a phantom that emulates the optical character-                
          istics of breast tissue, that resembles the breast in shape                 
          and size, and that can be scanned by MRI and another                        
          modality (optical imaging device) to verify its make-up.                    
          Independent claims 1 and 12 are representative of the                       
          subject matter on appeal and a copy of those claims can                     
          be found in the Appendix to appellants’ brief.                              


                    The prior art references of record relied upon by                 
          the examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:                          
          Madsen et al. (Madsen)       5,312,755       May  17, 1994                  
          Nelson et al. (Nelson)       5,719,916       Feb. 17, 1998                  

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