Appeal No. 1996-0647
Application No. 07/871,401
The examiner’s rejection of claim 4 fails for reasons
noted above. The addition of the Nonni reference to show the
use of a peroxide-alkali extraction stage to improve pulp
brightness does not remedy the deficiencies discussed above.
Accordingly, the rejection of claim 4 under 35 U.S.C. §
103 as unpatentable over Granum in view of "Technical News",
Kringstad and Nonni is reversed.
C. The Rejection of Claim 7
The examiner states that Granum teaches a D/CZEHD
bleaching sequence (page J 27, sequence 7) and the elimination
of the H stage would have been obvious “if one were willing to
use a less bright pulp.” (Answer, page 5). 7
However, on this record, the examiner has not shown what
loss of function would have been expected if the H stage was
7The examiner has also considered claim 7 in the rejection
of claims 1-3 and 5-8 discussed above in rejection "A"
(Answer, page 3). The examiner states that "claim 7 is an
open claim and does not exclude the ‘H’ stage of GRANUM ET
AL." (Id.). In addition to the reasons given above for
reversal of this rejection, we must also note that claim 7
recites the transitional term "consisting of" along with the
language "no other stages either before, in-between or
following the stages of this sequence". Therefore, we
construe this claim as "closed" to the inclusion of any other
stages than washing stages. See Ex parte Davis, 80 USPQ 448,
450 (Bd. App. 1948).
9
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