Appeal No. 2006-2023 Page 3
Application No. 10/650,785
1. The ‘785 application was filed on 29 August 2003 as a continuation of U.S.
application 08/809,044 (“the ‘044 application”), filed on 30 May 1997.
2. The ‘044 application is the national phase of International Application AU
199534657, filed 8 September 1995, under 35 U.S.C § 371.
3. The ‘785 application was filed as a continuation of the ‘044 application and
appears to have a disclosure that is similar but not identical to that of the ‘044
application.
4. The ‘785 application contains claims directed to a method for treating drinking
water and to an apparatus therefor.
5. The examiner objected to the disclosure of the ‘785 application as improperly
referring to the ‘785 application as a “continuation” of the ‘044 application (Office
action, p. 2 (mailed 24 August 2004)).
6. According to the examiner, "[t]he limitation that treated water is removed from the
process tank 'through a membrane filter' (see claims 1 and 11, step c; and claim
17, lines 6-7) does not appear to be supported by the disclosure" of the '044
application (Office action, p. 2 (mailed 24 August 2004)).
7. Appellants amended the ‘785 specification to provide antecedent basis for the
limitation at issue by adding the words of claims 1 and 17 verbatim
(Supplemental amendment, pp. 2-3 (filed 2 May 2005)).
8. The amendment was entered (Advisory action, p. 1 (mailed 26 May 2005)).
9. According to the examiner, since the limitation of “removing treated water from
the process tank through the membrane filter” was not supported by the original
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