Appeal No. 2001-0159
Application 08/936,724
the feature which the customer declarants stated was their basis
for purchasing the claimed covered mat, i.e., the mat is covered
by synthetic resin film on all sides (page 4; figure 1), and that
the appellants have not shown a nexus between the increased sales
and a recited characteristic of the claimed invention which
distinguishes it over the JP ‘849 covered mat (answer, page 9).
The JP ‘849 covered mat differs from that recited in the
appellants’ claim 1 in that the JP ‘849 films are bonded by heat
sealing (pages 4-6) rather than by hot melt adhesive.
The appellants argue that the JP ‘849 covered mat was not
commercially available because the JP ‘849 heat bonding does not
produce a commercially viable product (brief, pages 8-9). This
argument is supported by 1) the appellants’ specification,
wherein the problems with the JP ‘849 covered mat are discussed
(page 3, line 6 - page 5, line 20), 2) the declaration of Hayashi
wherein he states that “unlike glass wool insulating materials
from other manufacturers” the appellants’ mat has all surfaces
covered (page 1), and 3) the declaration of Kawakami wherein he
states that the shorter sides of the heat insulating material of
other manufacturers were not covered with synthetic resin films
(pages 1-2). Hence, the evidence of record indicates that the
increased market share was due to an element of the claimed
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007