Appeal No. 2006-1357
Application No. 09/754,486
The appealed claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
first paragraph, and 35 U.S.C. § 103(a).
In contesting rejections under § 103(a) appellants rely
upon an affidavit of one of the inventors, Stephen Temple (see
principal brief at page 12, third paragraph, and page 13, second
paragraph). Our review of the examiner’s answer finds no
discussion of the Temple affidavit or any rebuttal of
appellants’ arguments based thereon. Consequently, the present
record is incomplete with respect to the examiner’s
consideration of all the evidence of obviousness and non-
obviousness. Accordingly, this application is remanded to the
examiner to afford the examiner the opportunity to place of
record his consideration of the Temple affidavit.
Upon return of the application to the examiner, the
examiner should consider the acknowledgement at page 1 of the
present specification that W093/15911 discloses forming a nozzle
in a nozzle plate for an ink jet print head wherein “[t]he
divergence of the beam will determine the angle of taper of the
nozzle” (page 1 of specification, lines 18-19). It is not clear
from the present record that the examiner has considered this
apparent acknowledgement of the state of the prior art in
determining the obviousness of the claimed subject matter.
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Last modified: November 3, 2007