Appeal No. 2003-1021
Application 09/507,507
invention is to overcome these drawbacks of the prior art devices
and provide a thermally matched interface between a heat
producing electronic device and a heat sink. Id., page 1,
lines 6-7.
DISCUSSION
1. Rejection of claim 24 under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
first paragraph
Claim 24 is a dependent claim which requires that the
claim 1 heat sink comprise a plurality of discrete layers between
the body of the heat sink and an intermediate region which is
between a heat generating device and the body. In particular,
claim 24 requires that each of the plurality of discrete layers
has a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than the layer
beneath it.
Appellants maintain that the language of claim 24
complies with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 112, first
paragraph, because this language appeared in original claim 6,
now cancelled. See Appeal Brief, Paper No. 22, received
September 10, 2002, page 14. Appellants note that although this
language did not appear in the original specification, the
specification has since been amended in a manner consistent with
originally filed claim 6. Id. The examiner maintains that the
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