Appeal No. 2006-0703 Page 7
Application No. 09/268,437
array or a single working electrode, the biosensor may optionally
include one or more counter electrodes.
Thus, what Henkens teaches is that when there is a plurality of working
electrodes, there is also a plurality of reference electrodes, but that the invention
also encompasses the use of a single working electrode and a single reference
electrode. Henkens, however, does not teach the use of a single reference
electrode with a plurality of working electrodes.
The examiner is apparently reading the second sentence of the above
passage as teaching an array with a plurality of working electrodes and a single
reference electrode by reading the term “counter electrode” as being equivalent
to a “reference electrode.” Henkens teaches, however, at column 14, lines 42-
49:
The electrochemical cell comprises two or more electrodes.
One electrode serves as a reference electrode and one is a
working electrode. In one embodiment, two electrodes are present,
in which case the current flows between the working and reference
electrodes. Alternatively, three electrodes are present; a working, a
reference and a counter electrode, in which case the current flows
between the working and counter electrodes.
The above passage demonstrates that the reference electrode is different from
the counter electrode, and the passage at column 6 of the patent cannot be read
as teaching an array comprising a plurality of working electrodes and a single
reference electrode.
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