Appeal No. 96-1214
Application No. 08/065,182
agent. Rantanen (‘396) fails to show a large diameter (at least 18 mm), hollow tubular
shaped coating bar.
Montgomery shows a coating device and method for coating a web with a coating
material which comprises a revolving coating bar having a large diameter, i.e., from 1/8
inch up to several inches or more. (See column 7, lines 20, 61, 68-column 8, line 15).
The examiner recognizes that the cited prior art does not show the use of a hollow
bar; however it is the examiner’s position that without the showing of criticality of a hollow
bar v. a solid bar, the prior art’s solid bar would be equivalent to the claimed hollow bar.
Appellants’ sole argument and focus is that even if the teachings of Rantanen (‘396
) and Montgomery were combined, they would fail to establish a prima case of
obviousness since they fail to teach or suggest a revolving coating bar which has a hollow
interior. We find that this application contains sufficient evidence to establish that the use
of a hollow revolving coating bar is conventional in this art.
Appellants submitted an IDS statement on May 20, 1993(Paper No. 2). In that
statement, appellants cite, inter alia, U.S. Patent Number 4,889,073 to Meinander and
Finland patent, No. 911345, and indicate that this Finish patent corresponds to Serial No.
07/686,026. Serial No. 07/686,026 is now U.S. Patent No. 5,246,497 (‘497) to Rantanen.
On this record, appellants did not provide any statement of relevance as to these
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