From http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair and searching on the application number 10/136,163, which is US20030208745 (patent application) or US7055140 (Granted patent) it is possible to see the course of a patent application. The application was rejected twice, first on 03-23-2005 as seen under 'image file wrapper' and later at 09-07-2005. However the applicant pointed out that the cited patent (US5835699) does not claim a specific void function.
As some has pointed out, USPTO has a backlog of 3 millions patent applications meaning there is not much time to do a proper search for prior art.
Slashdot Mirror
From http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair and searching on the application number 10/136,163, which is US20030208745 (patent application) or US7055140 (Granted patent) it is possible to see the course of a patent application. The application was rejected twice, first on 03-23-2005 as seen under 'image file wrapper' and later at 09-07-2005. However the applicant pointed out that the cited patent (US5835699) does not claim a specific void function. As some has pointed out, USPTO has a backlog of 3 millions patent applications meaning there is not much time to do a proper search for prior art.