HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY L.P.Download PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardJul 17, 20202019002001 (P.T.A.B. Jul. 17, 2020) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 14/388,177 09/25/2014 Vitaly Miryanov 84046860 1448 146568 7590 07/17/2020 MICRO FOCUS LLC 500 Westover Drive #12603 Sanford, NC 27330 EXAMINER MIAN, MUHAMMAD U ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2163 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 07/17/2020 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): software.ip.mail@microfocus.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte VITALY MIRYANOV, XIANG TAN, and SHUANGLIN TANG Appeal 2019-002001 Application 14/388,177 Technology Center 2100 Before JAMES R. HUGHES, CATHERINE SHIANG, and BETH Z. SHAW, Administrative Patent Judges. SHAW, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON REQUEST FOR REHEARING Appellant requests a rehearing under 37 C.F.R. § 41.52(a)(1) (“Request”) for reconsideration of our Decision on Appeal mailed April 23, 2020 (“Decision”). We deny Appellant’s Request and decline to make any substantive changes to our Decision. In light of Appellant’s Request, we address Appellant’s purported points of error as follows. Appellant contends we misapprehended or overlooked certain points when we affirmed the Examiner’s rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103. Request 1–7. Appeal 2019-002001 Application 14/388,177 2 CONTENTIONS AND ANALYSIS By regulation, “[t]he request for rehearing must state with particularity the points believed to have been misapprehended or overlooked by the Board.” 37 C.F.R. § 41.52(a)(1). We are not persuaded that we overlooked or misapprehended any arguments in the Appeal Brief or Reply Brief. Rather, the Decision specifically addressed the arguments in Appellant’s Appeal Brief and Reply Brief. Decision 2–10. Only those arguments actually made by Appellant were considered in the Decision. Accordingly, we could not have misapprehended or overlooked an argument that was not presented or not presented adequately in the briefing. We remind Appellant that a request for rehearing is not an opportunity to reiterate arguments presented previously in earlier pleadings that were fully addressed in an earlier Decision. 37 C.F.R. § 41.52. Appellant argues “that the Board has either misapprehended or overlooked Appellant's arguments raised in the Appeal Brief and Reply Brief.” Request 2. In particular, Appellant argues, the Board is incorrect in asserting that “Appellant does not point [the Board] to any portions of the Specification or claims to persuasively rebut this claim construction by the Examiner.” Id. “Appellant did in fact provide specific reasons regarding why the Examiner's interpretation of ‘make up’ in the claim language at issue is erroneous.” Id. at 3. In support of Appellant’s argument that we overlooked an argument in the brief, Appellant quotes page 7 of the Reply Brief: “The Examiner's interpretation of ‘make up’ as meaning ‘belong’ is erroneous, for reasons stated above in the discussion relating to the § 112, ¶ 1 rejection.” Id. Appeal 2019-002001 Application 14/388,177 3 We did not overlook this argument in the Reply Brief, however. We stated that Appellant “does not point us to any portions of the Specification or claims to persuasively rebut this claim construction provided by the Examiner in the Answer, other than to state that this interpretation is inconsistent with the Examiner’s position taken in the § 112 rejection.” Decision at 5 (emphasis added). Indeed, we quoted the Examiner’s reference to paragraph 1 of the Specification several times throughout our discussion of the rejection of the claims under § 112. See Decision at 4, 5. Moreover, we specifically summarized this argument on pages 5 and 6 of the Decision, citing to page 7 of the Reply Brief multiple times. Id. at 5, 6. Thus, we did not misapprehend or overlook this argument in the Reply Brief, but rather, considered and rejected this argument. Appellant additionally argues for a “correct interpretation” of “make up” (Request 3) and requests reconsideration of “the remainder of the Decision on Appeal,” by presenting additional arguments regarding Masinter (US 7,409,405, issued Aug. 5, 2008) under this proposed interpretation of “make up.” Request 4–6. Yet, we did not misapprehend or overlook this interpretation of “make up” or these arguments. A Request for Rehearing is not an opportunity to merely express disagreement with a Decision, and in this case, disagreement with the claim construction and consequent obviousness analysis provided in the Decision. Accordingly, Appellant does not persuade us of error in our Decision. CONCLUSION We have reconsidered our Decision in light of Appellant’s arguments in the Request, and we have granted Appellant’s Request for Rehearing to the extent that we have reviewed our Decision and considered the arguments Appeal 2019-002001 Application 14/388,177 4 made in the Request. We are not persuaded of error in our previous Decision. Therefore, and we decline to make any changes in the Decision. In summary: Outcome of Decision on Rehearing: Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Reference(s)/Basis Denied Granted 1–6, 8–13, 15–19, 21– 23 112 1–6, 8–13, 15–19, 21– 23 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16 103 Bhargava, Masinter 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16 3, 10, 17 103 Bhargava, Masinter, Han 3, 10, 17 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 103 Bhargava, Masinter, and Maunder 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 6, 13, 19 103 Bhargava, Masinter, Takagi 6, 13, 19 21–23 103 Bhargava, Masinter, Chrisop 21–23 Overall Outcome: 1–6, 8–13, 15–19, 21– 23 Final Outcome of Appeal after Rehearing: Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed 1–6, 8–13, 15–19, 21– 23 112 1–6, 8–13, 15–19, 21– 23 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16 103 Bhargava, Masinter 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16 3, 10, 17 103 Bhargava, Masinter, Han 3, 10, 17 Appeal 2019-002001 Application 14/388,177 5 Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 103 Bhargava, Masinter, and Maunder 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 6, 13, 19 103 Bhargava, Masinter, Takagi 6, 13, 19 21–23 103 Bhargava, Masinter, Chrisop 21–23 Overall Outcome: 1–6, 8–13, 15–19, 21– 23 DECISION Appellant’s request for rehearing is denied. DENIED Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation