Appeal No. 2007-0111
Reexamination 90/006,297
1 having “no support in the specification for the subject matter of the phrases
2 ‘interpolymerizing ethylene...cycloaliphatic radical’ and ‘interpolymerizing
3 ethylene with styrene C6H5CH=CH2.’” The Board affirmed the prior art rejections
4 over Vandenberg and one of the two 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶1 rejections (the rejection
5 of claims 11 and 17) but not the other (the rejection of claims 11-17). Ex parte
6 Natta, Appeal No. 95-2683 (BPAI 1998), vacated in part and remanded, In re
7 Natta, No. 99-1183 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 5, 1999).
8 On appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the
9 Commissioner filed an “Unopposed Motion for Remand” dated March 22, 1999,
10 which was granted. On remand, the affirmance of the prior art rejections as
11 applied to claims 12-16 was vacated and the application was remanded to a
12 different examiner, the original examiner (Edward J. Smith) having retired from
13 federal service. On September 21, 2001, more than 46 years after the filing of the
14 first United States application in the chain, the patentees submitted claims in their
15 present form. These claims were allowed on October 2, 2001.
16 The ‘687 patent issued with 34 claims. (Amended appeal brief at 8.) During
17 reexamination, claims 35-52 were added. (Id.)
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