Appeal No. 2004-0933 Application 09/256,680 We refer to the final rejection (Paper No. 10) (pages referred to as "FR__") and the examiner's answer (Paper No. 15) for a statement of the examiner's rejection, and to the appeal brief (Paper No. 14) (pages referred to as "Br__") and reply brief (Paper No. 16) (pages referred to as "RBr__") for a statement of appellants' arguments thereagainst. OPINION The examiner errs in stating the claims stand or fall together Appellants identify the following groups of claims, where the claims within each group stand or fall together (Br3): Group I - claims 1-3, 6-9, 12-17, 20, and 21 Group II - claims 4, 10, and 18 Group III - claims 5, 11, and 19 The examiner states that claims 1-21 stand or fall together because appellants' brief does not include a statement that this grouping of claims does not stand or fall together (EA2) and that appellants have elected to rely on the discussion of claim 1 to contend that claims 2-21 are patentable (EA6). This is error. As noted by appellants (RBr1-2), appellants have expressly grouped the claims into three groups and have made arguments why the claims in each group are separately patentable. However, since we reverse the rejection of the independent claims in - 3 -3Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007