Appeal No. 2003-2169
Application 09/792,667
directional deposition (request, page 2). The appellants rely
upon their figure 13E for a clear and enabling disclosure of how
the directional nature of the deposition is obtained. See id.
What the appellants’ figure 13E shows is that the electric
field is pointed in the direction of deposition. That figure,
however, as well as the remainder of the appellants’ disclosure,
does not disclose any particular technique for orienting the
electric field in the desired direction. Instead, as pointed out
in our decision (page 5), the specification merely states that
plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition machines, which are
commercially available, preferably are used for the process, and
that the directional deposition also can be obtained by
sputtering (page 20, lines 6-22). As we pointed out in our
decision, because these are the same techniques used by Agahi to
obtain directional deposition predominately on horizontal
surfaces (col. 7, lines 52-58), “it reasonably appears that
Agahi’s electric fields, like those of the appellants, are
‘oriented directionally’ as that term is used by the appellants”
(page 5).
As argued by the appellants, “[a] person of skill in the art
would know how to adjust the equipment to obtain the electric
field described in the above-quoted passage and in Fig. 13E”
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