Appeal No. 95-0429
Application No. 07/730,199
McMahon and Zucker; and
(3) Claims 1 through 6 and 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over either O’Connor or appellants’ admission in
view of Zucker and McMahon.
We reverse.
The appealed claims are directed to a hybrid yarn which
is defined in part by process limitations. The process
limitations further define the structure and property of a
hybrid yarn by requiring that “each of the spun yarns of
[reinforcing fibers and thermoplastic matrix] fibers” is
“obtained by cracking with slow, gradual stretching of multi-
filaments, and after stretching, parallel fibers of said
mixture” are “wrapped by a continuous filament of
thermoplastic material.” See claim 1. This requirement
indicates that the claimed hybrid yarn is cracked
and stretched parallel reinforcing and thermoplastic matrix
fibers wrapped in a continuous filament of thermoplastic
material. Since, according to page 4, lines 25-31, and page
5, lines 30-38 of the specification, cracking with slow,
gradual stretching of multi-filaments produces discontinuous
fibers, the claimed hybrid yarn is actually discontinuous
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Last modified: November 3, 2007