Appeal No. 2005-0488
Application No. 09/851,274
The examiner relies upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Kawabe et al. (Kawabe) 6,159,656 Dec. 12, 2000
Chen et al. (Chen) 6,174,661 B1 Jan. 16, 2001
(filed Dec. 28, 1998)
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a resist
material comprising at least one surfactant having a fluorine
substituent and a non-ionic surfactant in the recited amount.
The non-ionic surfactant cannot have either a fluorine or
silicon-containing substituent. According to appellants, the
present invention provides "a resist material and a pattern
formation method in which the coating property is improved, the
occurrences of microbubbles in the solution is [sic, are]
suppressed, and further occurrences of a variety of defects
causing the yield reduction in the device manufacturing step are
low" (page 2 of Brief, paragraph four).
Appealed claims 1-4 and 9-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Kawabe taken with Chen.
Appellants submit at page 2 of the Brief that "[f]or the
purposes of this Appeal with respect to the outstanding
obviousness rejection, claims 1-4 and 9-20 are to be considered
standing or falling together, and accordingly, are grouped
together in Group I" (last paragraph). Accordingly, even though
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