Ex Parte JOHNSON - Page 9




                Interference No. 104,316                                                                                                               
                Sauer Inc. v. Kanzaki Kokyukoki Mfg. Co., Ltd.                                                                                         

                conception prior to February 3, 1988, and even further assuming that Sauer has an actual                                               
                reduction to practice sometime in October of 1988, Sauer has failed to demonstrate reasonable                                          
                diligence toward reduction to practice from a time just prior to February 3, 1988, to October,                                         

                1988.                                                                                                                                  
                        In the fourth entry appearing in a chart beginning on page 26 of its brief, Sauer                                              
                specifically accounts for its activities in the period from 11/26/87 to 02/28/88. Also within that                                     
                entry, Sauer admits that all the identified activities are directed to design concepts outside of the                                  
                scope of the count. Sauer further does not allege that such activities outside of the scope of the                                     
                count was somehow either required or necessary for constructing and/or testing an embodiment                                           
                which is within the scope of the count. This gap, more than three weeks of which are within                                            
                Sauer's critical period during which Sauer must have been reasonably diligent in reducing the                                          
                invention to practice, renders unpersuasive Sauer's assertion that it had been reasonably diligent                                     
                in the critical period for reducing the invention of the count to practice.                                                            
                        Sauer argues that during that initial gap, it was merely relying on agreements made with                                       
                Kanzaki with regard to what it would work on subsequent to their technical meeting held from                                           
                11/23/87 to 11/25/87. The argument is without merit. That the parties together decided to direct                                       
                theirjoint efforts to something outside of the scope of the count does not provide an excuse for                                       
                either party to not be diligent in reducing the invention of the count to practice. Either for                                         
                technical or business reasons or a combination of the two, and whatever is its motivation, Sauer                                       
                chose to pursue something outside of the scope of the count and has nothing to show for more                                           

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