Appeal No. 2004-1575
Application No. 09/732,120
The central issue on appeal is whether Takano describes,
within the meaning of § 102, the claimed circuit board that is
connected to a slide switch. It is the examiner’s position that
feature 10d of Takano’s figure 3 meets the requirement of a
circuit board. We concur with appellants, however, that element
10d, which Takano describes as “a bottom plate” of the housing 10
of the slide switch, does not qualify as a circuit board, as the
phrase would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.
(See Takano at column 4, lines 17-22). We do not subscribe to
the examiner’s reasoning that bottom plate 10d of Takano is a
circuit board because the plate “is a board and it supports
portions (i.e. contacts and leads) of a circuit” (page 4 of
answer, first paragraph). Rather, we agree with appellants that
bottom plate 10d of Takano does not perform a basic function of a
printed circuit, namely, to transmit electricity in a complete
circuit. Indeed, as noted by appellants, Takano expressly states
that the disclosed slide switch is designed to be connected to
external circuits. In relevant part, Takano discloses that “one
end of the conductors 18 will extend from the housing 10 and thus
provide a means by which the slide switch can be coupled
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