Appeal No. 95-0227
Application No. 08/061,406
ordinary skill in that art would have found any need to use a
greater amount of polysiloxane than taught by Sterling. On the
other hand, we note that the presently claimed composition has
been formulated by appellant for an entirely different purpose,
i.e., for use as a clay-like handworking material for manual arts
and crafts.
III.
In rejecting the claims under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph, the examiner asserts that the term “clay-like” is
indefinite. With regard to that assertion we adopt as our
own the position taken by appellants in their reply brief and
supplemental reply brief. To effectively restate that position,
we note that within the context of the instant specification and
claims the term “clay-like” is reasonably construed as defining a
composition which is “freely deformable and moldable at low
stresses while being capable of retaining its induced shape when
allowed to stand after molding” (specification: paragraph
bridging pages 5-6). This is what we understand to be the
commonly accepted attributes of a molding clay. In essence,
“clay-like” as used in the claims is equivalent to a statement of
intended use or function and, as such, is not indefinite per se.
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