Appeal No. 2007-0204
Application 10/938,966
page 8) the gradients. "Reduce" is defined as "to diminish in size, amount,
extent, or number," in accordance with the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary definition provided by Appellant. In the final rejection, the
Examiner states that "reduced" slice encoding and rewinder gradients would
not be understood to include completely "turning off, or disabling" the
gradients. See Final Rejection at 2 ("One does not generally understand the
term to mean that the gradients have been turned off."). In the Examiner's
Answer, the Examiner appears to state that "reduced" slice encoding and
rewinder gradients, as claimed, can include completely "turning off, or
disabling" those gradients. See Answer at 3 ("With respect to the definition of
the term 'reduced', it is respectfully submitted that while the term 'disabled'
involves a reduction in the gradients, the term 'reduced' is a much broader
term that can merely imply that the gradients are at a level lower than that
previously used but not necessarily completely disabled."). In any case, the
Examiner's point is that the original disclosure does not provide written
description support for the term "reduced" meaning anything other than being
completely turned off or disabled. For completeness, we interpret "reduce" in
the alternative to mean: (1) diminishing the gradients, but not completely
eliminating them; and (2) "turning off, or disabling" the gradients.
The second question is whether the disclosure describes diminishing
the slice encoding and rewinder gradients without "turning off, or disabling"
those gradients. We find it does not. Appellant argues that page 8 of the
specification describes the disablement of S3 and S4, but not the slice
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