Appeal No. 97-2715
Application No. 08/306,797
in the art (In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781, 783, 26 USPQ2d 1529,
1531 (Fed. Cir. 1993)). If the examiner fails to establish a
prima facie case, the rejection is improper and will be
overturned (In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596,
1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988)).
The appellants’ invention is concerned with acting upon
the surface of a shirred food casing strand in order to smooth
the exterior surface and to provide uniformity to the strand
so that the strand is not curved. According to the method
described in claim 1, this is accomplished by the steps of (1)
providing an opening space between at least three parallel
rollers large enough to insert the strand, (2) closing the
space so that all three rollers contact the strand, and (3)
smoothing the exterior surface of the strand by simultaneously
contacting the strand with the three rollers at different
lines of contact along its entire length.
This claim stands rejected on the basis of the combined
teachings of Kostner and de Rocheprise. Kostner discloses a
machine for improving the shape of a shirred food casing
strand. It has essentially the same objectives as the
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