Appeal No. 2006-3241
Application No. 10/834,332
Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved Jan. 27, 2007, from Encyclopaedia Britannica
Online: http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-59190.1
On this record, we thus conclude that the recitation of electromagnetic Aor other
radiation@ renders the claim indefinite under 35 U.S.C. ' 112, second paragraph,
because it is not known what Aother radiation@ the claim may encompass. We
therefore sustain the rejection of claims 1-18 under 35 U.S.C. ' 112, second paragraph.
We do not, however, sustain the rejection of claims 1-4, 13, 17, and 18 under 35
U.S.C. ' 103, principally for the reasons expressed by appellant at section 4.3.2 (pages
12 and 13) of the Reply Brief.
The ' 103 rejection asserts that because Wickersham does not disclose the
Aappropriate material@ for blackened (infrared absorbing) layer 104 in Figure 9 of the
reference, the artisan would have looked to other art (i.e., Tricoire) to determine what
the material should be.
Tricoire discloses a heat guiding layer 11 (Fig. 1), preferably made of a latex, and
blackened by one or more layers of black paint. Tricoire col. 4, ll. 8-19. The blackened
layer in Wickersham, however, receives infrared emissions that are imaged by optical
system 105, with transfer of the infrared image to a luminescent layer 103. Wickersham
col. 10, l. 58 - col. 11, l. 10. Tricoire teaches that the heat guiding layer is part of a
thermographic plate that is applied against an area to be surveyed, with the heat
1 A printed (3 page) copy of the entry should mail as an attachment to this decision.
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