Appeal 2007-1675
Application 10/158,708
the rigid resin may be an epoxy resin or any other of the well-known rigid
resins used in fiber glass resin molding systems (Schulz, col. 1, ll. 55-57).
As Appellant points out, Schulz does not teach the use of an acrylic
polymer and the Examiner does not provide any evidence to support his
assertion that Schulz’s cap and shell are molded from an acrylic polymer
(Br. 10). More specifically, Appellant directs attention to Wimmer’s
teaching that thermosetting plastics like the fiber-reinforced polyester or an
epoxy that are disclosed in Schulz are in a different category from
thermoplastics such as acrylics (id.).
According to Wimmer, acrylics are typical thermoplastics (Wimmer,
col. 1, ll. 16-17). In contrast, Wimmer teaches that unsaturated polyester
resin is a typical example of a thermosetting material (Wimmer, col. 1, ll.
25-30). Wimmer teaches that “[t]hermoplastics may be softened by heating
and set or hardened again by cooling without undergoing a chemical change;
this physical change is reversible. . .” (Wimmer, col. 1, ll. 10-12). In
contrast, Wimmer teaches that thermosetting plastics “become increasingly
infusible on heating, undergoing a chemical change which is not reversible.
This reaction or chemical change is normally called curing” (Wimmer, col.
1, ll. 25-28).
As Appellant explains, “the term ‘thermoformed’ is well understood
in the art to be the process of taking a sheet of plastic, heating (not melting)
it, then shaping it” (Br. 8). In support of this assertion, Appellant submits “a
photocopy of an internet web page[ ]2 of Cox-Thermoforming Limited, a UK
company in the thermoforming business” (id.). The Cox-Thermoforming
2 http://www.cox-thermoforming.co.uk/thermoforming/centre.htm (Br. Ex.
A).
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