Appeal No. 2005-0077
Application No. 10/293,545
widening at least some of the segments of the original trace
design that are transverse to the direction of elongation of the
web to obtain the modified trace design.
In addition to the admitted prior art, the examiner relies
upon the following references as evidence of obviousness:
Whittle 4,082,632 Apr. 4, 1978
Stanley Wolf and Richard Tauber (hereinafter "Wolf"), 1 Silicon
Processing for the VLSI Era 520-24 (Lattice Press, 1986)
Appellant's claimed invention is directed to a method of
preparing a modified trace design that is to be translated on a
web in a continuous etching process of the web. Appellant has
found that the over-etching of features on the web were greater
in the transverse section of the web relative to over-etching of
the features in the longitudinal direction. The longitudinal
direction is the direction of travel of the web through the
continuous etching bath. Appellant's solution to the problem is
widening the original trace design in the transverse direction to
compensate for the over-etching in the transverse direction.
Appealed claims 1-12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as being unpatentable over the admitted prior art in view of Wolf
and Whittle.
Appellant submits at page 5 of the principal brief that
claims 1 and 6 stand and fall together but that claims 2-5 and
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