I finally took the time to read the response to the patent office examiner. (9/08 entry - Applicant Arguments and Remarks... 18 pages) I assume it was Moore that put this together? He made a painstaking effort to make the examiner understand what the differences really are from prior art.

I thought he did a pretty darn good job. How about you? Are you going to have your contact read this response?

There were two parts I particularly liked. One at the beginning and one at the end. IMO we got an assist from the examiner.

The first one was where they used the examiners advice to clarify the meaning of "independent". The second was at the end where we stated, "It is noted with appreciation that these claims were indicated by Examiner Rimell as being distinguishable over the combination of Kato and Ledzius et al."

Looking good IMO.