Appeal No. 2004-0434
Application No. 09/836,686
group are believed to be separately patentable. See pages 10-13
of the brief and pages 1-3 of the reply brief. Appellant has
fully met the requirements of 37 CFR § 1.192 (c)(7) (July 1,
2002) as amended at 62 Fed. Reg. 53169 (October 10, 1997), which
was controlling at the time of Appellant's filing of the brief.
37 CFR § 1.192 (c)(7) states:
Grouping of claims. For each ground of
rejection which appellant contests and which
applies to a group of two or more claims, the
Board shall select a single claim from the
group and shall decide the appeal as to the
ground of rejection on the basis of that
claim alone unless a statement is included
that the claims of the group do not stand or
fall together and, in the argument under
paragraph (c)(8) of this section, appellant
explains why the claims of the group are
believed to be separately patentable. Merely
pointing out differences in what the claims
cover is not an argument as to why the claims
are separately patentable.
We will, thereby, consider Appellant's claims as standing or
falling together in the three groups noted above, and we will
treat:
Claim 10 as a representative claim of Group I;
Claim 23 as a representative claim of Group II; and
Claim 25 as a representative claim of Group III.
If the brief fails to meet either requirement, the Board is free
to select a single claim from each group and to decide the appeal
of that rejection based solely on the selected representative
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