Appeal No. 2004-0632
Application No. 09/748,312
a functional thin film formed on at least one of the pair of
substrates (Brief, paragraph bridging pages 3-4). Appellants
have found that keeping the refractive index differences between
0.0 and 0.3 improves the contrast of the liquid crystal element,
where this difference is between the largest refractive index and
the smallest refractive index among the at least one of said pair
of substrates, said functional thin film, and said electrode
(Brief, page 4). Appellants state that claims 1-12 stand or fall
together (Brief, page 8) and therefore we select and limit our
consideration in this appeal to independent claim 1. See 37 CFR
§ 1.192(c)(7)(2000). Representative independent claim 1 is
reproduced below:
1. A liquid crystal element, comprising:
a liquid crystal layer disposed between a pair of
substrates, an electrode and a functional thin film formed on at
least one of said pair of substrates,
wherein a refractive index difference between a largest
refractive index and a smallest refractive index among refractive
indexes of said at least one of said pair of substrates, said
electrode formed on said at least one of said pair of substrates
and said functional thin film formed on said at least one of said
pair of substrates is in a range from 0 to 0.3.
The examiner has relied upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Stein et al. (Stein) 6,322,860 Nov. 27, 2001
(filed Nov. 2, 1998)
2
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