Appeal No. 95-3935
Application 08/162,995
the fiberglass having the Icote thereon to be rolled and folded without the Icote cracking or
crumbling.
Brouessard discloses a waterproofing or sealing surfacing for facades of buildings,
comprised of a fibrous material having thereon resin droplets over which is applied a
polyethylene sheet which protects against rain (col. 1, line 62 - col. 2, line 9). The surfacing
composite then can be wound on itself (col. 3, lines 29-37). After the polyethylene sheet
has been removed, a smooth finish is applied to the fibrous material having resin droplets
thereon (col. 2, lines 40-43).
The examiner argues that Webb discloses the same material for the same purpose
as appellants’ composite, and that Webb’s material therefore inherently is flexible (answer,
page 9). This argument is not well taken because Webb teaches that the Icote contains
cement and water which are added at the time of mixing (col. 3, lines 10-20), and the
teaching that the cement is not added until the time of mixing indicates that the cement
would cause premature hardening of the composition if it were added earlier. Thus, the
reference indicates that the Icote coating is a hardened coating rather than being a flexible
coating as required by appellants’ claim 1.
The examiner argues that almost anything will flex if enough pressure is applied
(answer, page 8). This argument is unpersuasive because it does not address the
requirement in appellants’ broadest claim that the binder is sufficiently flexible to allow
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007