Ex Parte Gandrud

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardMar 4, 2013

11145900 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 4, 2013)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte MICHAEL D. GANDRUD ____________ Appeal 2010-009895 Application 11/145,900 Technology Center 2800 ____________ Before THU A. DANG, JAMES R. HUGHES, and GREGORY J. GONSALVES, Administrative Patent Judges. GONSALVES, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appeal 2010-009895 Application 11/145,900 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the rejection of claims 1-4 (App. Br. 2). Claims 5-7 were withdrawn (id.). We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We affirm. The Invention Exemplary claim 1 follows: 1. A power switching assembly, comprising: an insulating substrate; a circuit board mounted on the insulating substrate; a power switching transistor having a mounting surface mounted to the circuit board and a top surface located opposite the mounting surface; and a heat sink associated with the top surface of the power switching transistor, the heat sink operating to dissipate thermal energy from the top surface of the power switching transistor. Claims 1, 2, and 4 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Smith (U.S. Patent 5,694,297) in view of Kuriyama (U.S. Patent 6,040,229) (Ans. 3-4). Claim 3 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Smith in view of Kuriyama and further in view of Bunyan (U.S. Patent 6,956,739) (Ans. 4). Appeal 2010-009895 Application 11/145,900 3 FACTUAL FINDINGS We adopt the Examiner’s factual findings as set forth in the Answer (Ans. 3, et seq.). ISSUE Appellant’s responses to the Examiner’s positions present the following issue: Did the Examiner err in finding that Smith teaches “a circuit board mounted on the insulating substrate; [and] a power switching transistor having a mounting surface mounted to the circuit board and a top surface located opposite the mounting surface,” as recited in independent claim 1? ANALYSIS Appellant contend that the Examiner erred in rejecting independent claim 1 as obvious because Smith does not teach the claim limitations quoted above (App. Br. 3-7). In support of this contention, Appellant argues that “Smith as one of ordinary skill in the art chose not to describe the apparatus of numeral 108 as a circuit board as Smith did not consider the device of numeral 108 to be a circuit board” (id. at 4-5). In particular, “Appellant asserts that one skilled in the art would not consider an IC socket 108 a circuit board. Specifically, the IC socket 108 does not contain circuits and thus cannot be considered a circuit board” (App. Br. 4). The Examiner concluded, however, that the IC socket 108 in Smith is a circuit board because it contains “various components (figure 2, column 5, lines 13-15) mounted on and electrically connected by the circuits, traces or wirings/patterns (see figures 2-3) on/in the portion (108b)” (Ans. 6). We Appeal 2010-009895 Application 11/145,900 4 agree with the Examiner’s conclusion and underlying findings of fact. Our reviewing court requires us to give a claim its broadest reasonable meaning consistent with the Specification. In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Appellant’s Specification discloses a circuit board 20 having an electrical component attached by a lead (Fig. 2; p. 4, ll. 20-25). Like the circuit board 20 in Appellant’s Specification, the IC socket 108 of Smith is shown as a board (Smith, FIG. 2). Moreover, Smith’s IC socket 108 includes various electrical components (e.g., capacitors, amplifiers, transistors) connected in a circuit (id., FIG. 3). Accordingly, under the broadest reasonable claim construction consistent with the Specification, Smith’s IC socket 108 qualifies as the circuit board required by claim 1. Appellant also argues that Smith, rather than teaching a transistor mounted to a circuit board as required by claim 1, “teaches a DC to DC switching power supply regulator 116 that is electrically coupled to the voltage supply bond pads of IC package 102 by means of thin film metal tracks that run between portions 108a and 108b and substrate 126” (App. Br. 7). Appellant further argues that “[t]he DC to DC switching power supply 116 does not have a mounting surface that is mounted on a circuit board” (id.). The Examiner, however, concluded that Smith teaches a “switching power regulator (116) having a mounting surface (a bottom surface) mounted to the at least portion of PCB (portion 108b, explained as above) and a top surface of the regulator opposite to the mounting surface, which is mounted on the surface of the portion 108b” (Ans. 6). We agree with the Examiner’s conclusion. Smith illustrates a power regulator having a mounting surface attached to an IC socket 108 (FIG. 2). Moreover, as Appeal 2010-009895 Application 11/145,900 5 explained supra, Smith’s IC socket qualifies as the claimed circuit board. Accordingly, we find no error in the Examiner’s conclusion that Smith teaches a transistor having a mounting surface attached to a circuit board and in the Examiner’s obviousness rejection of claim 1 as well as claims 2-4 dependent therefrom because Appellant did not set forth any separate patentability arguments for those dependent claims (see App. Br. 7-8). DECISION We affirm the Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1-4 as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1)(iv). AFFIRMED peb