Appeal No. 2006-1203
Application No. 10/370,976
With respect to claim 3, Appellants argue that Tran does not
disclose the connection of the first strip and/or the second
strip to the ground signal (brief, page 11). The Examiner
responds by pointing to Figure 4 of Tran in which strip 408 is
shown as connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial feed and
by stating that the outer conductor is conventionally grounded
(answer, pages 9-10). We agree with the Examiner that strip 408,
which is characterized as the claimed second conductor, is
grounded by being connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial
feed. We also observe that strip 404, which is characterized as
the claimed first element, is connected to the outer shield by
virtue of being connected to strip 408 at its end portion.
Therefore, we agree with the Examiner that the first strip, as
well as the second strip, of Tran are grounded.
Turning now to the rejection of claim 6, Appellants assert
that the antenna strips of Tran do not have an inverted-F or
inverted-L shape and instead, are connected to form a U-shaped,
V-shaped, or C-shaped structures (brief, page 12). The Examiner
argues that Tran’s Figure 4 shows the inverted-F structure by
strip 404, the inner conductor of the coaxial feed and the
shorting wall having dimension “t” while strip 408 together with
the outer conductor of the coaxial feed forms an inverted-L
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