Appeal 2006-1875
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,272
1 Facts
2 Prosecution
3 1. The Request for Reexamination alleged that claims 1-20 of the '076
4 patent were anticipated under 35 U.S.C. § 102 and/or unpatentable under
5 § 103(a) over one or more of eleven (11) trade publication exhibits, including
6 Exhibit 11, the Copes-Vulcan Brochure.
7 2. Mr. Herbert Miller, a Vice President of Control Components, Inc.
8 ("CCI"), the Third Party Requester, filed a declaration in support of the
9 Request for Reexamination, discussing the exhibits.
10 3. CCI is a competitor of Copes-Vulcan, Inc., as evidenced by
11 Exhibits 1-7 and 10 submitted with the Request for Reexamination.
12 4. The Examiner determined that the eleven exhibits raised a substantial
13 new question of patentability and entered an Order Granting Request for
14 Ex Parte Reexamination on June 26, 2002.
15 5. In an Office Action of March 12, 2003, the Examiner rejected
16 claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a) or § 102(b) as being anticipated by the
17 Copes-Vulcan Brochure, and also rejected claims 1-20 under § 102(b) or
18 § 103(a) over other references.
19 6. Patent Owner filed an amendment on May 12, 2003, canceling claims 1
20 and 11, rewriting claims 5 and 16 as independent claims, and adding
21 dependent claims 21-23.
22 7. Patent Owner states in the May 12 amendment, page 7:
23 Patentee conducted a diligent investigation as to the first date of
24 publication of the [Copes-Vulcan] Sales Brochure. Patentee was
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