Ex Parte Steenburg - Page 17



           Appeal 2006-1865                                                                         
           Application 09/660,433                                                                   
           Patent 5,802,641                                                                         

                 IV. DISCUSSION –  REJECTION UNDER 35 U.S.C. § 251                                  

                                      A.  Recapture Principles                                      
                                                (1)                                                 
                                            The statute                                             
                 The reissue statute expressly permits a patentee to correct an error thus          
           permitting patentee to obtain reissue claims broader than the originally issued          
           patent claims at any time within two (2) years from the date the original patent         
           issues.  More particularly, 35 U.S.C. § 251, ¶¶ 1 and 4, provide in pertinent part:      
                 Whenever any patent is, through error without any deceptive                        
                 intention, deemed wholly or partly inoperative or invalid, by reason of            
                 a defective specification or drawing, or by reason of the patentee                 
                 claiming more or less than he had a right to claim in the patent, the              
                 Director shall, on the surrender of such patent and the payment of the             
                 fee required by law, reissue the patent for the invention disclosed in             
                 the original patent, and in accordance with a new and amended                      
                 application, for the unexpired part of the term of the original patent.            

                 No reissued patent shall be granted enlarging the scope of the claims              
                 of the original patent unless applied for within two years from the                
                 grant of the original patent.                                                      






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