Appeal No. 2000-1386
Application No. 09/078,477
Id. In accordance with the invention, “[a]t least one coating
component, and preferably two coating components, of the coating
composition is injected into the cascading material at the top
moving layer.” Appeal Brief, Paper No. 10, received February 17,
2000, page 3.
DISCUSSION
The examiner relies on Huttlin for a teaching of:
a method of coating a granular material with a
coating material where the granular material is rotated
and cascaded in a horizontal rotating drum and a coating
material is injected into what is considered a top moving
layer of the cascading granular material, with a
plurality of nozzles, where the coating material wets the
granular material.
Examiner’s Answer, Paper No. 11, mailed March 17, 2000, page 3
(citations omitted). The examiner maintains that Huttlin teaches
each of the claim 7 method steps with the exception of collecting
or using the coating granules. See id. The examiner takes the
position that this latter step is well known and conventional in
the art1 and, therefore, it would have been obvious for one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellants’ invention to
1
1Appellants do not dispute this finding.
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