Ex Parte SANDHU - Page 39




                       Vasilyeva also testifies that she reviewed the 143 Specification6 “to determine if the disclosure                    
               therein was sufficient to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention defined in Leung                       
               claims 13, 19, 20 and 26.”  Based upon this  review, she expresses the opinion that one skilled in the                       
               art would not have been able to make and use the subject matter of Leung claims 13, 19, 20 and 26.                           
               SX 1015, pp. 7-8, ¶ 11.  Vasilyeva appears to bottom her opinion on the purported absence of certain                         
               express teachings from  the 143 Specification. Vasilyeva testifies that the 143 Specification does not                       
               teach or describe the use of a hydrogen plasma to reduce carbon content and decrease resistivity.  SX                        
               1015, pp. 8-10, ¶¶ 12-14.  She also testifies that the 143 Specification does not teach any method to                        
               reduce carbon content and decrease resistivity without voltage biasing the substrate and that biasing                        
               is understood to be a required step to reduce the carbon content and resistivity.  SX 1015, pp. 10-11,                       
               ¶¶ 15-17.  Vasilyeva summarizes her testimony stating that in order for one of ordinary skill to have                        
               practiced the claimed invention based on the disclosures of 143 Application, an extraordinary amount                         
               of experimentation would have been required.  SX 1015, p. 15, ¶ 24.                                                          
                       We also do not credit Vasilyeva’s testimony that undue experimentation would be required.                            
               The specification is written to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention.  W.L. Gore &                      
               Associates, Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1556, 220 USPQ 303, 315 (Fed. Cir. 1983).  The                             
               specification, however, need not teach what is well known in the art.  Spectra-Physics, 827 F.2d at                          
               1534, 3 USPQ2d 1737 at 1743; Hybritech,  802 F.2d at 1384, 231 USPQ at 94.  In other words a                                 
               specification is not rendered non-enabling merely because certain information fails to be described in                       
               the specification.  It must also be shown that the person having ordinary skill in the art could only have                   
               filled in those gaps in the disclosure using undue experimentation.  Vasilyeva’s testimony does not                          
               provide a basis beyond the alleged absence of disclosure to support her conclusion that undue                                
               experimentation would be necessary.  For example, we note that none of the alleged missing features                          
               have been shown or said not to be conventional or well known in the CVD art.  Vasilyeva’s opinion                            
               on undue experimentation is conclusory and not entitled to any weight.                                                       


                        6       Vasilyeva’s  testimony  was  expressly  addressed  to  the  specification  of  the  great-grandparent       
                application.  However, since the original specifications of the great-grandparent and the 143 Application appear to be      
                and are admitted to be identical, we have construed the testimony as applying to the 143 Application as well.  See F6       
                and F7, above.  We need not refer to the parent and grandparent applications since Leung has disclaimed reliance on         
                whatever additional description is present in those applications.  Paper 104, p. 15.                                        
                                                                    -39-                                                                    





Page:  Previous  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007