Appeal No. 2003-1266
Application No. 09/735,054
Rejection of claim 15 under 35 U.S.C. § 103
over Reed ‘453 in view of Yatka
Reed ‘453 discloses that “aqueous sweetener solutions
such as those containing sorbitol, hydrogenated starch
hydrolysates, corn syrup and combinations thereof” may be
included in the gum center (col. 3, lines 13-15). Reed ‘453 also
indicates that glycerine and sorbitol solution are optional
(col. 3, lines 26-27). These disclosures would have fairly
suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the art, a gum center
which contains hydrogenated starch hydrolysate and does not
contain glycerine or sorbitol solution. As for the requirement
in the appellants’ claim 13 that the gum center does not contain
other aqueous softeners, the teaching in Reed ‘453 that the water
content in the gum center is to be very low, most preferably less
than about 1 wt%, so that the center is not a water donor to the
coating would have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in
the art, use of softeners which are not in aqueous form (col. 2,
lines 27-37).
Reed ‘453 does not disclose that the coating step includes a
dry charging step as required by the appellants’ claim 15. Such
a dry charging step is disclosed by Yatka (col. 17, lines 19-20;
col. 19, lines 10-11). There is no dispute as to whether it
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