Appeal No. 2004-0706
Application No. 09/777,982
respectively engaging the contacts 14 on the printed circuit
board 12 and the leads 18 in the second connector 16.
Each of the rejections on appeal rests in large part on a
finding by the examiner (see pages 4, 7 and 8 in the answer) that
either of McClure’s connectors 10 and 16 meets the limitations in
independent claims 1, 22 and 23 requiring a surface mounted
substrate-based electrical device with an end cap termination and
the related limitation in independent claim 35 requiring a
surface mounted film electrical element with an end cap
termination. From the examiner’s perspective, the McClure
connectors are “surface mounted” and “substrate based” because
they are mounted on the surfaces of printed circuit board
substrates and “electrical devices” because they are pieces of
equipment that serve an electrical purpose. The examiner also
submits that these connectors have an “end cap termination” in
the form of the end terminals in their respective terminal or
lead arrays.3
The appellants counter that the examiner’s analysis is
unsound in that a person of ordinary skill in the art would
understand the subject claim limitations as defining a device
3 The examiner does not specifically explain how McClure’s
connectors meet the “film” limitation in claim 35.
4
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