Appeal No. 2004-2099
Application No. 09/487,191
page 3 of the brief. We do not concur with this grouping.
Appellants' arguments are applicable only to independent claim 1
and not to independent claims 7 and 13, as these claims do not
contain the argued limitation. See pages 3-6 of the brief and
pages 1-2 of the reply brief.
We will, for purposes of this appeal, treat the claims as
standing or falling together in two groupings:
Claims 1-6 and 20-22 as Group I; and
Claims 7-13 and 23 as Group II.
37 CFR § 1.192 (c)(7) (July 1, 2002) as amended at 62 Fed. Reg.
53169 (October 10, 1997) was controlling at the time of
Appellants' filing of the brief. 37 CFR § 1.192 (c)(7) states:
Grouping of claims. For each ground of
rejection which appellants contest 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, appellants
explain 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.
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