Appeal No. 95-1987
Application 08/076,475
furnace. See Itoh at column 3, line 7. Thus, Itoh's mold
does not require a cooperating pair of electrodes to carry out
the dielectric heating process. However, Natori's Figure 13
embodiment describes a mold/cooperating electrode plate
arrangement for dielectric heating as called for by the
appealed claims. See column 3, lines 43-54 of Natori which
suggests that this is also a conventional means for carrying
out high frequency dielectric
heating. In lieu of utilizing a conventional dielectric
heating furnace, as disclosed in Itoh, it would have been
prima facie obvious to have utilized a conventional
mold/cooperating electrode plate arrangement as disclosed by
Natori to effect "high frequency" dielectric heating.
Appellants also emphasize that their claimed method
requires "pressurizing" the mold during the process consistent
with the disclosure in the specification at page 6, lines 28-
35, which indicates that the rubber compound is press molded
while being vulcanized. This claimed feature, in our view, is
fairly suggested by Itoh's disclosure at column 3, lines 1-6,
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